IE  P RES BYTE 


PULPI 


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OR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIE 


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Vv^ILLIAM  R  RICHARDS 


"^  \  A  Friend's  Beautiful  Tribute 

DEC211971  I  A*^  memorial  service  held  in 

the  Brick  Presbyterian  Church, 
yj.  ^Ky^^y  New  York  City,  the  other  Sun- 

^C'G/CAL  %V^^^^  day  evening,  for  the  Rev.  Dr. 

William  R.  "P  shards,  the  late 
pastor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Henry 
Stimson,  pastor  of  the  Manhat- 
tan Congregational  Church  of 
New  York,  a  life-long  friend 
of  the  deceased  clergyman, 
made  an  address  from  which 
we  quote  a  few  sentiments, 
which  will  awaken  deep  interest  and  prompt  high 
aspiration.  '  They  are  as  follows: 

"When  I  think  of  our  brother  as  I  first  knew  him 
in  his  New  England  home,  in  the  company  of  his 
mother  and  sisters,  I  think  of  him  as  an  old-fash- 
ioned Christian.  Brought  up  in  the  atmosphere  of 
a  country  parsonage,  surrounded  with  gentle  faces 
and  quiet  voices,  in  an  atmosphere  of  love  and 
purity,  and  steadfast  devotion  to  the  welfare  of 
others,  where  prayer  was  constant  and  faith  was 
simple  and  satisfying,  and  life  was  well  ordered  as 
in  the  fear  of  God,  he  began  his  career  with  that 
preparation  which  went  far  in  making  him  the  man 
he  was. 

"When  I  think  of  him  as  he  was  in  college,  and  in 
the  seminary,  it  is  of  a  beautiful  youth,  a  fine 
scholar,  a  leader  of  men;  but  gentle,  kindly,  self- 
composed,  and  one  of  the  best  loved  men  of  his  class. 
"As  we  have  known  him  of  late,  older  and  bur- 
dened with  the  care  and  the  responsibilities  of  a 
great  city  parish,  there  was  the  same  reserved 
strength,  the  same  self-control,  with  the  ripening 
judgment  and  the  increasing  force  of  the  same  self- 
forgetful  personality.  Beneath  all  was  the  humor- 
ous, playful  spirit,  which  found  its  opportunity  for 
expression  in  the  intimate  companionship  of  his 
friends.  He  was  a  gift  of  God  to  this  great  church, 
and  to  the  community,  whose  value  can  hardly  be 
expressed." 

The  brotherhood  of  the  ministry,  illustrated  in 
this  tribute  of  a  friend,  is  expressed  by  the  apostle 
in  his  reference  to  a  dear  ministerial  companion  in 
these  words: 

Who  is  a  beloved  brother  and  a  faithful  minister  and  fellow- 
servant  in  the  Lord.    (Col.  4  :  7.) 

^    BX  9178  .R47  F6 

Richards,  William  Rogers, 

1853-1910. 
For  whom  Christ  died 


V>^i..^^ 


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^     '>       ^     ^      It'        hn' 


■:-  Aft.       ci|wu.<.,«^Tri  i 

U 


FOR   WHOM    CHRIST   DIED 


William  R.  Richards,  D.D. 


^be  ipresbi2terian  ipulpit 

_ « — 


DEC21  ]9/i. 


FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

WILLIAM  R.  RICHARDS,  D.  D. 

Pastor    of    The    Brick    Church,   New    York 


The  word  is  very  nigh  unto  thee,  .  .  . 
that  thou  mayest  do  it. 


PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN    BOARD   OF   PUBLICATION 
AND  SABBATH-SCHOOL  WORK 

1902 


■if: 

^4 


Copyright,  1902,  by  the  Trustees  of 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath- 
School  Work. 

Puhlix/ted  November,  1902. 


PUBLISHERS'  ANNOUNCEMENT 

This  is  one  of  a  series  of  sermons  entitled, 
'*  The  Presbyterian  Pulpit,"  which  will  be  issued 
from  time  to  time  during  the  coming  months. 
Each  volume  will  contain  eight  sermons.  The 
preachers  selected  are  those  who  are  well  known 
and  whose  sermons  have  been  greatly  blessed. 
The  first  of  the  series  contains  eight  sermons 
preached  by  George  Tybout  Purves,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
The  second  contains  eight  sermons  of  the  Rev. 
William  R.  Richards,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  The  Brick 
Church,  New  York  city.  Two  other  volumes 
will  be  issued  during  the  autumn — one  furnished 
by  President  M.  Woolsey  Stryker,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
and  another  by  Prof.  Herrick  Johnson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
These  will  be  followed  by  other  volumes  from  time 
to  time. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I.     The  Brother  for  Whom  Christ  Died    .       3 
II.     A  Complaint  and  an  Answer  .         .         -23 

III.  The  Monotony  of  Sin      .         .         .         -43 

IV.  The     Three     Taverns  :     A     Missionary 

Sermon 61 

V.  The  Power  of  Personality  :  A  Word  to 

Students    .         .         .         .         .         .81 

VI.      "  But  if  Not" loi 

VII.      "The  Gates  of  the  City"      .         .         .   121 
VIII.     The  Home  of  the  Soul  ....   141 


I 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST 

DIED 


FOR  WHOM   CHRIST   DIED 


THE  BROTHER   FOR   WHOM    CHRIST  DIED 

"  And  through  thy  knowledge  shall  the  weak  brother  perish, 
for  whom  Christ  died?" — i  Corinthians  viii.  ii. 

"  The  brother  for  whom  Christ  died."  What  an 
extraordinary  thing  to  say !  Did  the  Son  of  God 
then  risk  His  life  for  the  sake  of  some  one  man  ? 
For  us  the  words  may  have  lost  the  sound  of 
strangeness  through  long  use  in  the  familiar  lan- 
guage of  hymn  and  prayer :  "  I  gave  My  life  for 
thee  " ;  '*  Rock  of  ages,  cleft  for  me."  But  has 
the  thought  grown  perfectly  familiar  to  you? 
If  perchance  you  had  never  heard  the  sound  of 
the  words  before,  might  it  not  now  seem  strange 
and  audacious,  if  some  one  should  tell  you  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  died  for  the  sake  of  one  man  ? 

If  it  were  said  that  Christ  died  for  the  whole 
world,  we  could  more  easily  believe  it,  for  the 
whole  world  is  a  very  large  thought.  All  those 
innumerable  people  through  all  the  generations 

3 


4  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

who  make  up  the  people  of  the  whole  world — 
there  is  an  immensity  about  it  that  staggers  one's 
reason.  You  seem  to  be  dealing  with  almost  in- 
finite quantities.  Even  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest, 
in  his  mood  of  heartless  calculation  could  say : 
"  It  is  expedient  that  one  man  should  die  for 
the  people,  and  that  the  whole  nation  perish  not." 

Oh,  but  this  word  of  Paul's  is  very  different 
— not  so  easily  credible  !  See  that  weak  brother 
over  there,  whom  you  have  been  slighting  as  a 
somewhat  contemptible  character.  "  Be  careful," 
Paul  says ;  **  the  man  is  worth  more  than  you 
think ;  that  is  the  veiy  man  for  whom  Jesus 
Christ  died  on  the  cross."  So  far  as  I  know, 
Paul  was  the  first  of  the  apostles  to  put  the  amaz- 
ing thought  into  words,  that  Christ  cared  enough 
for  any  one  man  to  give  His  life  for  him. 

It  would  be  interesting  if  we  could  know  how 
Paul  himself  ever  came  to  believe  such  a  thing 
and  dared  to  say  it.  For  really  something  like 
this  hard  faith  is  what  we  all  most  sorely  need 
for  our  comfort  to-day, — to  be  able  to  believe  in 
a  God  who  can  have  such  care  for  men,  one  by 
one,  such  personal  affection  toward  one  man.  Is 
there  such  a  God  ?  It  is  the  great  question  that 
is  likely  to  confront  any  of  us  some  day,  in  time 
of  trouble,  when  we  look  up  into  the  sky,  and 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED       5 

say :  "  Is  there  any  one  there — can  I  be  sure  there 
is — who  cares  for  me  ?" 

A  distinguished  scientific  writer  of  our  time, 
the  father  of  so-called  agnosticism,  lost  a  little 
child  whom  he  loved  devotedly.  A  friend  of  his, 
the  late  Canon  Kingsley,  wrote  to  the  afflicted 
father,  trying  to  comfort  him  with  thoughts  of 
God.  But  the  answer,  while  perfectly  courteous, 
was  one  of  the  saddest  letters  a  man  ever  wrote. 
Mr.  Huxley  said  that  to  him  all  other  religious 
questions  seemed  matters  of  "  comparatively  small 
moment  in  the  face  of  the  impassable  gulf  be- 
tween the  anthropomorphism  of  theology  and  the 
passionless  impersonality  of  the  unknown  and 
unknowable  which  science  shows  everywhere 
under  the  thin  veil  of  phenomena."  That  is  to 
say.  Christians  have  beHeved  in  a  God  in  some 
way  like  ourselves,  a  Father  in  heaven  who  loves 
us  and  cares  for  us  as  we  care  for  one  another — 
that  is  anthropomorphism :  while  all  that  this 
scientist  could  find  underneath  the  visible  world 
was  an  unknown  and  unknowable  somethine. 
a  "  passionless  impersonality,"  like  the  force  of 
gravity  or  electricity,  mysterious,  everywhere 
present,  awful ;  but  you  could  not  possibly  love 
it,  or  pray  to  it,  or  count  on  its  sympathy. 

It  goes  its  way,  majestic,  relentless ;  but  if  you 


6  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

cross  its  path  it  will  destroy  you  in  a  moment, 
with  no  care  for  you,  or  your  joy,  or  pain,  or  life, 
or  death.  It  is  a  "  passionless  impersonality," — 
that  was  all  Mr.  Huxley  could  find  where  Chris- 
tians have  looked  for  God.  So  he  said  there 
was  an  impassable  gulf  between  his  way  of  think- 
ing and  their  way  of  thinking.  He  was  right ;  it 
is  an  impassable  gulf  Now  the  question  is.  How 
has  any  one  ever  been  able  to  pass  over  that  im- 
passable gulf? 

There  might  be  some  one  in  this  room  who  had 
been  standing  on  the  dark  side  of  that  gulf;  how 
would  it  be  possible  for  him  to  pass  over  to  the 
bright  side,  and  begin  to  believe  in  a  personal 
God,  a  Father  in  heaven? 

Now  our  text  comes  from  a  man  who  had 
//  crossed  that  gulf  that  separates  agnosticism  from 
faith.  His  feet  are  planted  firmly  on  the  other 
side  of  it.  The  unseen  Being  was  not  a  passion- 
less impersonality  to  Paul.  For  what  he  thought 
of  God  was  all  bound  up  in  what  he  knew  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  here  in  our  text  he  says, 
"  Shall  the  weak  brother  perish,  for  whom  Christ 
died  ?"  He  is  speaking  of  some  weak  brother 
in  the  Corinthian  Church ;  some  particularly  un- 
important member,  a  man  of  no  account,  as  we 
say,  a  sort  of  nonentity.    Even  the  kindest  hearted 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED      7 

and  most  charitable  people  there  would  be  apt 
to  say  of  him  that  it  would  be  little  loss  if  he 
dropped  out;  really  he  was  hardly  worth  the 
trouble  of  writing  his  name  over  on  the  roll, 
when  they  got  out  a  new  edition  of  the  year 
book.  That  is  the  man  Paul  is  talking  about — a 
weak  brother;  but  it  is  this  weak  brother  and 
Christ;  and  he  says — what  did  he  say?  That 
Christ  cared  more  for  the  weak  brother  than  we 
seem  to  care  for  him  ?  That  Christ  would  have 
done  more  for  the  weak  brother,  or  borne  more 
from  him  than  we  seem  willing  to  do  or  bear? 
That  Christ  loved  this  weak  brother  better  than 
we  seem  to  love  him  ?  All  that  would  have 
been  true,  certainly,  but  that  was  not  quite  what 
Paul  wrote ;  he  puts  his  meaning  into  a  phrase 
far  stronger  than  any  of  those.  It  is  that  that 
weak  brother  is  the  man  Christ  died  for.  Human 
language  cannot  go  farther  than  that.  Oh,  what 
an  impassable  gulf  there  is  between  such  a  be- 
liever in  Christ  and  that  hopeless  father  who, 
looking  up  in  his  anguish,  could  find  no  trace 
of  any  God  who  really  cared  what  became  of  his 
dear  little  child.  Paul  believes  in  a  Christ  who 
cared  so  much  about  that  little  child  that  He  died 
for  him.  Now  my  question  is,  How  did  Paul 
learn  to  beheve  that?  how  did  he  cross  the  im- 


8  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

passable  gulf  so  successfully  ?  how  did  he  get  his 
feet  planted  so  firmly  in  faith  in  a  Lord  who 
cared  enough  for  each  one  of  us  to  die  for  us  ? 

Well,  Paul's  faitli  in  Christ  began  somehow  in 
that  vision  of  which  we  read  in  The  Acts,  when  he 
was  journeying  to  Damascus  and  saw  the  light 
and  heard  the  voice  calling  him  by  name.  That 
was  an  event  which  meant  so  much  to  Paul,  and 
Paul  has  counted  for  so  much  in  the  creation  of 
Christian  belief  in  other  men's  minds  through  all 
the  ages  since,  that  we  are  apt  to  name  his  con- 
version among  the  great  events  in  the  world's 
religious  history,  second  only  to  the  great  events 
in  the  life  and  death  of  Christ  Himself.  But  of 
course  the  conversion  was  only  the  beginning  of 
his  faith ;  and  we  know  very  well  that  such  a  man 
would  never  be  content  to  stop  with  a  beginning. 
It  was  never  his  way  to  think  that  he  had  already 
attained.  So  long  as  he  lived  he  was  always  for- 
getting the  things  behind,  and  reaching  forth  to 
the  things  before,  and  pressing  toward  the  mark, 
that  he  might  know  Christ.  So  our  question  is 
not  about  his  conversion,  but  about  his  progres- 
sion in  the  Christian  faith,  how  he  ever  came  to 
know  Christ  well  enough  to  say  of  Him  the  ex- 
traordinary thing  that  he  says  in  this  letter  to 
the  Corinthians,  that  Christ  died   for   that  weak 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED      9 

brother.  How  did  Paul  get  so  far  as  that  in 
believing  in  Christ's  care  for  us  ? 

Well,  to  answer  this  we  ought  to  look  into  the 
letter  itself,  and  see  just  what  the  writer  was  talk- 
ing about  when  he  said  this  thing  ;  what  the  actual 
course  of  thought  was  that  led  up  at  last  to  such 
an  extraordinary  statement.  How  did  he  come  to 
be  talking  about  that  weak  brother  at  all  ? 

If  you  look  back  through  this  eighth  chapter, 
you  will  find  that  it  is  not  a  treatise  on  theological 
mystery — not  at  all.  It  is  not  as  if  a  man  had  sat 
down  to  argue  about  the  existence  of  God,  or  the 
person  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  chapter  is 
directly  and  intensely  practical.  That  question, 
so  troublesome  in  those  days,  about  eating  meat 
offered  in  an  idol  temple,  had  come  up.  Some  of 
the  Corinthians  were  intelligent  enough  to  see  that 
this  meat  was  as  good  as  any  other.  The  idol 
could  not  possibly  hurt  it,  for  the  idol  was  nothing 
at  all,  only  a  dead  block  of  wood  or  stone.  But 
there  were  others  in  the  church  not  so  intelligent, 
who  could  not  yet  see  all  that ;  and  if  they  should 
be  led  on  by  their  neighbor's  example  to  eat  that 
meat  it  would  be  against  their  own  conscience,  and 
therefore  for  them  a  kind  of  sin. 

These  weak  brothers  are  an  exasperating  lot  of 
people.     With  their  irrational  scruples,  it  is  easy 


lo  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

to  despise  them,  and  to  say  impatiently  that  you 
do  not  care  what  becomes  of  them  and  their  absurd 
conscience.  But  Paul  says  :  **  You  must  not  do 
that."  He  says  :  "  I  would  rather  not  eat  another 
bit  of  meat  as  long  as  I  live  than  do  that  poor 
fellow  any  harm.  I  am  always  putting  myself  out 
in  all  possible  ways  to  keep  people  like  him  from 
harm :  every  day  of  my  life  I  am  becoming  all 
things  to  all  men,  in  the  hope  of  saving  some  of 
them."  That  is  the  substance  of  this  chapter;  it 
is  full  of  practical  Christian  advice  as  to  the  care 
that  they  must  show  for  one  another,  care  for  each 
member  of  the  church,  even  for  the  very  weakest 
brother  of  all. 

Now,  right  in  the  midst  of  that  commonplace 
practical  counsel,  he  throws  out  this  thunderbolt 
of  a  theological  statement :  "  Christ  died  for  that 
weak  brother."  Do  you  not  see  how  it  was  that 
Paul  worked  up  to  this  statement  ?  Do  you  not 
catch  his  unconscious  logic  ?  Can  you  not  trace 
the  lines  of  that  bridge  which  actually  led  him 
over  that  impassable  gulf  from  agnosticism  to 
trust  ?  Why  Paul  learned  to  believe  in  a  Christ 
/  who  cared  so  much  for  men,  by  caring  so  much 
for  rqen  himself — that  was  the  bridge.  It  had 
been  the  one  business  of  this  man's  life  for  years, 
the  thing  he  had  thrown  himself  into  with  all  the 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED     ii 

intensity  of  his  nature, — to  care  for  men ;  caring 
for  them  one  by  one,  taking  infinite  pains  to  know 
them,  studying  out  their  individual  peculiarities, 
making  allowance  for  all  their  weaknesses,  making 
the  most  of  all  their  excellences,  working  for  them 
when  present  and  thinking  and  worrying  about 
them  when  absent — "the  care  of  all  the  churches  " 
was  on  him.  "  My  little  children,"  he  writes  to 
one  specially  troublesome  group  of  them,  "  of 
whom  I  travail  in  birth  again  until  Christ  be  formed 
in  you" — he  cared  so  much  for  them.  He  used 
to  pray  for  them  one  by  one.  I  do  not  know  to 
how  many  of  these  churches  and  individuals  he 
writes  that  he  remembers  them  daily  in  his  prayers. 
He  cared  for  them  with  an  individual  particu- 
larity of  interest,  one  by  one.  His  sympathies  had 
been  growing  strong  and  deep  and  broad.  His 
heart  had  grown  by  exercise  large  enough  to  take 
in  all  these  many  friends  of  his,  these  his  many 
spiritual  children,  so  that  each  of  them  had  his 
own  place  in  Paul's  affection.  Some  of  you  may 
have  in  your  own  home  a  half  dozen  children  ; 
but  each  has  his  own  place  in  your  affection ;  you 
love  each  one  as  if  no  others  were  there.  Now  it 
was  hardly  a  figure  of  speech  for  Paul  to  call  the 
many  converts  in  his  many  churches  his  spiritual 
children, — all  of  them;  telling  each  one  that  he 


/ 


12  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

cared  for  him  as  if  he  were  the  only  one,  as  if  no 
others  were  there  to  care  for.  This  was  the  man 
who,  after  all  these  years  of  exercising  his  own 
heart  in  caring  for  others,  had  at  last  come  to 
believe  in  a  Lord  who  might  care  enough  for  each 
one  of  us  to  die  for  us.  "  Through  thy  knowledge 
shall  the  weak  brother  perish,  for  whom  Christ 
died  ?" 

You  see  Paul's  rule  for  learning  how  to  believe, 
if  he  drew  it  from  his  own  experience,  would  be  a 
very  practical  rule.  It  was  by  much  doing  that 
he  had  grown  so  strong  and  triumphant  in  beHev- 
ing.  The  Master  Himself  had  said :  '*  He  that 
doeth  the  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  "  ;  this 
servant  had  been  doing,  and  he  had  come  to  know 
and  believe.  So,  if  we  take  Paul  for  our  architect 
for  that  bridge  which  shall  carry  any  of  us  over 
the  impassable  gulf  from  agnosticism  to  faith,  he 
will  show  us  that  the  bridge  must  be  built  up 
solidly,  stone  by  stone,  of  simple  deeds  of  loving 
care  for  others,  a  care  like  that  which  we  had 
wanted  some  God  to  show  toward  us. 

The  text  is  thrown  into  the  chapter  by  way  of 
argument;  Paul  argues  from  Christ's  treatment 
of  the  weak  brother  to  the  treatment  that  we 
ought  to  show  him.  If  Christ  died  for  him  we 
ought  at   least   to  take  some  pains   not  to  injure 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED     13 

him.  That  is  the  conscious  logic  of  it,  and  any- 
one can  see  that  this  argument  had,  and  ought  to 
have,  tremendous  power  in  shaping  Paul's  own 
daily  conduct.  There  is  another  logic  in  the 
matter,  unconscious  perhaps,  but  very  powerful, 
working  the  other  way — not  from  Christ  on  to 
Paul,  but  from  Paul  back  to  Christ.  Here  is  the 
visible  phenomenon  of  Paul  himself  giving  his  life 
in  loving  care  for  others — and  of  course  he  did 
not  stand  alone  in  it.  We  only  name  him  as  a 
specially  conspicuous  representative  of  a  great 
class  of  people  then  and  since  who  have  been  con- 
trolled by  the  same  motive  of  loving  service. 
Now,  you  take  him  as  the  starting  point  of  your 
argument ;  what  shall  be  the  conclusion  of  it  ? 
Here  you  see  the  visible  effect ;  what  must  be  the 
unseen  cause  ?  For  you  know  we  are  constantly 
using  logic  in  both  these  ways,  reasoning  from 
known  causes  forward  to  future  effects,  and  also 
reasoning  from  present  observed  effects  back  to 
unknown  causes.  When  we  started  with  Christ 
and  His  cross  as  a  known  cause,  then  the  logical 
effect  ought  to  be  a  life  somewhat  like  Paul's. 
But  now,  on  the  other  hand,  if  you  did  not  yet 
know  the  cause,  starting  with  Paul's  life,  or  any 
similar  life,  as  a  visible  effect,  and  reasoning  back- 
ward logically,  you  ask,  What  is  the   cause   of 


14  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

such  a  life  ?  And  you  may  ask,  and  keep  on  ask- 
ing, but  you  will  never  get  a  satisfactory  answer 
until  you  find  it  in  something  Hke  the  divine  love 
of  Christ. 

This  world-wide  phenomenon  of  Christian  self- 
sacrifice,  where  one  is  willingly  giving  his  life  for 
others,  living  for  them  daily,  sometimes  dying 
for  them — is  going  on  everywhere.  Amidst  the 
cruelty,  the  selfishness,  the  heartless  competition, 
the  hard  struggle  for  existence,  which  have  made 
up  so  much  of  the  history  of  the  world, — in  the 
midst  of  all  these  you  find  this  very  different  phe- 
nomenon of  willing  sacrifice,  this  loving  care  of 
one  for  another.  This  is  the  observed  fact  among 
us  creatures  ;  but  what  is  the  cause  of  it  ?  Why, 
you  must  look  for  the  cause  somewhere  back  in 
the  heart  of  the  Creator.  God's  love  for  us  is  the 
cause  of  all  our  loving  one  another.  It  may  work 
in  the  hearts  of  some  who  never  heard  of  the 
gospel,  but  it  comes  from  God.  It  was  the  love 
of  Christ  that  constrained  Paul  to  his  loving  care 
of  the  brethren.  Paul  used  this  logic  about  him- 
self, though  it  might  be  unconsciously ;  and  every 
time  he  did  a  kindness  for  one  of  these  fellow- 
Christians  it  made  him  a  little  surer  of  the  reality 
of  Christ's  love  for  them  all,  until  at  last  he  could 
make  this  astounding  declaration,  throwing  it  in 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED     15 

quite  as  a  matter  of  course :  "  Look  at  that  weak 
brother  over  there ;  take  good  care  of  him ;  that 
is  the  man  Christ  died  for." 

So,  if  you  were  talking  with  a  man  who  had  no 
faith  in  a  personal  God,  and  mourned  that  he  had 
not — as  Huxley  told  Kingsley  that  he  envied 
him,  confessing  himself  on  the  dark  side  of  the 
impassable  gulf,  where  he  could  find  no  power 
back  of  the  visible  world  except  a  "passionless 
impersonality  " — if  you  really  want  to  help  him 
toward  faith,  show  him  the  life  of  some  Christian 
like  Paul,  who  has  really  given  himself  to  the 
work  of  helping  and  saving  others  because  he 
cares  so  much  for  each  of  them.  Better  yet  if 
you  can  find  one  still  living.  And  when  your 
friend  has  looked  long  enough  at  this  spectacle 
to  be  somewhat  interested  and  attracted  by  what 
he  sees,  then  persuade  him  to  go  and  do  some  of 
it  himself  Enlist  him  in  the  same  kind  of  loving 
service.  Get  him  to  caring  for  his  neighbors,  and 
putting  himself  out  to  serve  them,  until  each  of 
them  begins  to  seem  to  him  worth  caring  for. 

I  am  sure  before  your  friend  has  gone  very  far 
in  that  kind  of  action  he  will  find  that  the  other 
shore  of  the  impassable  gulf  draws  nearer;  and 
where  he  used  to  talk  about  a  "  passionless  imper- 
sonality," it  begins  to  seem  easier  for  him  now  to 


i6  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

look  up  and  say,  "  Our  Father."  If  the  man  goes 
on  far  enough  in  that  kind  of  action,  and  hand  in 
hand  with  such  a  companion  as  the  apostle  Paul, 
really  throwing  his  life  into  the  same  kind  of  self- 
forgetful  service,  willing  to  take  great  pains  for 
each  unfortunate  brother  whom  he  could  hope  to 
help,  some  day,  I  think,  these  strange  words  of 
Paul's  will  come  back  to  him ; — only  the  man  will 
learn  with  a  start  that  the  words  no  longer  seem 
strange  to  him  :  "  That  weak  brother  for  whom 
Christ  died."  "  Why,  of  course,"  he  says  to  him- 
self, *'  that  explains  it.  That  is  the  reason  why 
I  have  been  caring  so  much  for  the  poor  fellow. 
It  was  the  Lord  all  the  while  who  was  moving 
my  heart  to  care  for  him :  the  Lord  who  Himself 
cared  for  him  enough  to  die  for  him." 

So  now  the  man  finds  himself  safely  across  the 
impassable  gulf.  He  has  been  doing  the  will,  and 
has  come  to  know  of  the  doctrine  that  it  is  of 
God. 

Since  writing  these  words,  I  have  seen  an  utter- 
ance from  Professor  Francis  G.  Peabody,  of  Cam- 
bridge, which  I  should  hke  to  quote  to  you : 
"  No  sign  of  the  times  is  more  instructive  than 
the  effect  of  social  service  upon  social  life.  The 
critics,  the  philosophers,  and  the  lookers  on  are 
afflicted   just    now    with    an    epidemic   of  social 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED     17 

pessimism.  Political  methods  seem  debauched, 
municipal  conditions  degenerate,  the  burden  of 
poor-relief  increasing,  and  the  tone  of  prosperous 
life  degraded  by  commercialism,  until,  as  Matthew 
Arnold  said,  *  The  upper  classes  grow  materialized, 
and  the  middle  classes  vulgarized,  and  the  lower 
classes  brutalized/  And  meantime  who  are  the 
social  optimists  ?  They  are  the  people  who,  as 
Kipling  says,  are  doing  things.  .  .  .  Social  service 
renews  social  life.  He  that  wills  to  do  the  will 
comes  to  know  the  doctrine.  He  that  loses  him- 
self for  others'  sakes  comes  to  find  his  own  life 
worth  the  living.  .  .  .  The  secret  of  the  worth 
and  significance  of  life  is  hidden  from  the  many 
who  are  wise  and  prudent  and  disclosed  to  those 
who  lend  a  hand." 

There  are  many  persons  in  the  community  who 
would  not  call  themselves  agnostics,  for  they  have 
never  thought  of  doubting  the  existence  of  a  per- 
sonal God  as  He  is  revealed  in  the  Bible :  but 
what  they  cannot  yet  believe  with  any  comforting 
assurance  is  that  this  God  has  any  loving  care  for 
them.  They  have  never  learned, — or  if  they  once 
knew  they  have  now  forgotten, — how  to  say,  "  My 
God,"  "  My  Saviour."  There  might  have  been 
some  such  unfortunate  hearer  in  the  church  in 
Corinth  who  could  not  find  the  peace  that  his 


1 8  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

friends  found  through  beHeving  in  Jesus.  The 
heavens  still  seemed  dark  and  empty  above  his 
head;  his  prayers  brought  no  answer;  he  felt  him- 
self as  one  rejected,  as  if  he  had  committed  the 
unpardonable  sin.  What  sort  of  advice  do  you 
think  Paul  would  have  offered  to  such  a  man  ? 
For  my  part,  I  doubt  whether  he  would  have 
offered  him  any  advice  at  all  in  words ;  but  I 
think  he  would  have  enlisted  the  man  in  some 
practical  service  for  some  neighbor  of  his,  some 
weaker  brother  who  needed  his  helping  hand. 
So  it  would  have  gone  on  until  the  poor  doubter 
had  caught  enough  spiritual  enthusiasm,  and  be- 
come enough  concerned  about  this  weak  brother, 
to  lose  sight  of  his  own  selfish  spiritual  troubles ; 
and  then  some  day  he  w^ould  learn  that  the  grace 
of  God  which  he  had  been  vainly  seeking  had 
now  found  him. 

Now  he  believes.  "  The  reason  why  I  care  for 
that  weak  brother,"  the  man  says  to  himself,  "is 
because  Christ  cared  enough  for  him  to  die  for 
him.  Yes,  and  because  He  cared  enough  for  me 
to  die  for  me."  For  you  notice  that  was  the  way 
the  conviction  grew  with  the  apostle  himself 
The  Christ  who  cared  for  the  weak  brother  cared 
also  for  Paul.  This  man  who  had  learned  to  care 
so  much  for  each  of  his  converts,  and  had  learned 


THE  BROTHER  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED     19 

to  think  of  the  weakest  of  them  as  one  for  whom 
Christ  died, — it  is  he  who  has  given  us  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians  that  other  wonderful  con- 
fession of  faith :  "  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of 
God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me." 
There  is  personal  assurance  for  you.  No  wonder 
the  same  man  could  say  afterwards,  in  the  imme- 
diate prospect  of  martyrdom,  "  I  know  whom  I 
have  believed." 

But  we  have  been  trying  to  trace  the  practical 
steps  by  which  he  had  reached  that  assurance. 
All  the  way  through  he  had  been  doing  the  will, 
and  so  had  come  to  know.  It  was  while  he  him- 
self was  devoting  his  life  to  caring  for  men  that 
he  learned  so  much  about  God's  care  for  them 
and  for  him. 

Do  you  wish  to  get  safely  over  that  impassable 
gulf?  Do  you  wish  to  get  your  feet  planted  firm 
on  the  blessed  certainty  on  the  other  side  ?  Do 
you  long  to  know  that  God  cares  for  you, — that 
Christ  cared  for  you  enough  to  die  for  you  ? 
Then  do  you  go  and  find  your  weak  brother  and 
care  for  him.     "  He  that  doeth  shall  know." 


II 

A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER 


II 

A   COMPLAINT  AND   AN   ANSWER 

«  And  the  children  of  Joseph  spake  unto  Joshua,  saying,  Why 
hast  thou  given  me  but  one  lot  and  one  portion  to  inherit,  seeing 
I  am  a  great  people." — Joshua  xvii.  14. 

It  is  the  language  of  complaint  against  the 
orderings  of  divine  providence;  these  children 
of  Joseph,  the  two  tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Ma- 
nasseh,  had  grown  very  great  among  the  tribes 
of  Israel,  and  they  complained  that  they  had  not 
been  given  a  proportionately  great  lot  of  land. 
They  brought  their  complaint  to  Joshua,  and  ex- 
pected him  quickly  to  attend  to  it,  seeing  that  he 
himself  was  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim. 

We  may  take  these  discontented  tribesmen  as 
a  type  of  the  discontented  of  every  age  who  have 
been  ready  to  complain  that  the  lot  assigned 
them  has  not  been  equal  to  their  ability  or  their 
desert.  Such  complainers  have  been  very  com- 
mon. 

You  will  see  the  children  in  the  nursery  at  the 
cutting  of  the  cake,  each  watching  jealously,  and 
loud  in  his  complaints  if  brother  seems  to  get  a 

23 


24  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

crumb  too  much  in  his  portion,  and  he  himself  a 
crumb  too  little.  The  world  is  full  of  people 
who  are  children  grown  a  little  larger,  without 
leaving  their  childish  quarrels  and  jealousies  be- 
hind them.  Our  text  sets  before  us  a  striking 
example  of  that  kind  of  fretful  and  jealous  com- 
plaining. 

Now  let  me  say  at  the  outset  that,  under  some 
circumstances,  this  complaint,  as  addressed  to  the 
man  Joshua,  might  have  been  just;  if  the  whole 
land  had  been  conquered,  so  that  there  was  no 
more  to  be  had,  and  now  in  the  division  one 
tribe  with  only  a  few  thousand  people  in  it  were 
given  as  large  a  portion  as  another  tribe  with 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  people  in  it — that  were 
a  wrong  that  ought  to  be  righted. 

There  has  often  been  a  great  deal  of  that  kind 
of  injustice  in  the  human  distribution  of  the  va- 
rious opportunities  of  life.  To  correct  it  has  been 
the  great  aim  of  every  true  reformer.  We  have 
all  learned,  in  theory  at  least,  to  set  our  faces 
against  monopoly  in  land,  or  any  other  kind  of 
monopoly.  Wherever  there  is  only  so  much  of 
any  valuable  commodity  to  be  had,  and  some  one 
favored  individual  or  family  or  tribe  has  got  the 
whole  of  it,  or  an  undue  share  of  it,  we  all  join 
in  the  complaint  and  the  demand  for  redress ;  as 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  25 

it  was  in  France,  for  example,  or  indeed  in  any 
country  of  Europe,  before  the  great  Revolution ; 
when  certain  favored  classes  owned  nearly  all 
the  land  there  was,  while  the  mass  of  the  people 
lived  by  sufferance  in  a  country  which  in  no 
sense  belonged  to  them ;  here  a  crowded  village 
of  peasants  nearly  starving,  and  over  there  a  sin- 
gle noble  family  using  its  vast  estates  for  pre- 
serving game.  It  may  not  always  be  easy  to  say 
who  is  to  blame  for  such  an  outrage,  or  just  how 
to  correct  it;  but  if  we  can  in  any  way  get  the 
ear  of  Joshua  we  shall  tell  him  that  such  a  dis- 
tribution of  the  world's  opportunities  is  an  awful 
wrong,  and  must  somehow  be  set  right. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  we  have 
got  all  these  wrongs  righted  yet,  or  ever  shall 
till  the  Millennium.  We  are  still  a  long  distance 
from  our  goal.  But  the  goal  is  to  offer  to  every 
child  ever  born  into  this  world  an  equal  chance 
with  every  other  to  make  the  most  of  that  one 
life  he  has  to  live  here.  An  equal  chance,  I  say ; 
whether  or  not  the  child  improves  it  will  be  for 
him  to  determine ;  but  we  hold  ourselves  ready 
to  hear  the  complaints  of  those  who  have  not  had 
that  equal  chance.  So  I  would  say  with  all  pos- 
sible emphasis,  that  under  some  conditions  such 
a  complaint  as  these  men  of  Ephraim  brought  to 


26  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

Joshua  might  have  been  entirely  just,  and  worthy 
of  the  most  careful  consideration. 

But  in  fact  the  conditions  were  very  different 
from  that ;  the  land  had  not  all  been  conquered 
and  occupied ;  **  there  remaineth  yet  very  much 
land  to  be  possessed  "  ;  the  opportunities  for  each 
tribe  were  still  practically  unlimited;  the  only 
question  was,  would  they  improve  them?  And 
here  was  this  tribe  of  Ephraim  complaining  that 
though  it  was  so  great  and  strong,  it  had  a  very 
small  inheritance.  But  Joshua  stopped  them  just 
there ;  the  blunt  old  soldier  has  very  little  patience 
with  that  complaint.  He  answers  them  out  of 
their  own  mouth.  ''  If  you  be  a  great  people," 
he  says,  "  then  get  you  up  to  the  wood-country, 
and  cut  out  a  place  for  yourself;  if  your  Mount 
Ephraim  is  too  narrow  for  you,  find  a  broader 
territory."  They  seemed  to  think  that  because 
they  were  so  big  a  tribe,  some  one  else  ought  to 
conquer  and  clear  a  great  territory  for  them ; 
but  Joshua  answers :  "  The  land  is  open ;  if  you 
are  a  big  tribe  truly,  go  out  and  conquer  and 
clear  that  large  inheritance  for  yourself" 

Now  Joshua  stood  to  the  various  tribes  as  a 
representative  of  divine  Providence.  Many  of  the 
complaints  that  men  bring  against  Providence 
ought  to  be  answered  as  this  bluff  old  soldier 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  27 

answered  his  fellow-tribesmen.  For  in  substance 
the  complaint  is  that  we  deserve  a  better  portion 
than  we  have  received ;  the  answer  is  that,  if  we 
really  deserve  it,  w^e  must  go  and  get  it ;  there  is 
nothing  to  hinder;  the  land  is  open;  there  is 
room  enough  yet.  However  it  may  be  in  other 
countries,  here  in  America,  thank  God,  the  land 
is  still  open ;  there  is  room  and  to  spare  for  all 
the  tribes  ;  and  if  these  querulous  men  of  Ephraim 
are  really  speaking  the  truth,  and  if  they  are 
really  worthy  of  a  larger  inheritance,  there  is 
nothing  in  the  world  to  prevent  their  getting  it. 

I  do  not  say  that  all  the  good  things  of  life  are 
equitably  distributed  among  us  ;  far  from  it ;  for  I 
think  some  people  have  a  great  deal  more  than 
they  deserve,  and  a  great  deal  more  than  is  good 
for  them.  Our  national  wealth  has  been  increas- 
ing at  such  a  portentous  rate  of  speed  that  it  yields 
a  large  overflow  which  no  one  can  be  said  fairly 
to  have  earned ;  and  the  way  this  overflow  is  dis- 
tributed among  the  people  perplexes  our  sense 
of  justice  not  a  little;  I  do  not  think  the  worthiest 
tribe  always  gets  the  biggest  share  of  that  surplus, 
that  unearned  increment. 

But  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  question 
before  us  this  morning.  If  some  men  get  more 
than  they  deserve,  more  than  they  have  earned, 


28  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

we  may  leave  it  for  them  to  settle  that  with 
Providence  as  best  they  may.  If  some  of  the 
tribes  should  feel  impelled  to  come  back  to  Joshua 
with  the  title  deed  of  a  portion  of  their  allotment, 
saying,  "  It  is  too  much  for  us  ;  we  do  not  deserve 
it  all ;  we  cannot  use  it  all ;  take  some  of  it  back," 
we  can  leave  Joshua  and  that  tribe  to  settle  it 
together.  To-day  we  are  interested  in  a  tribe  that 
brought  the  opposite  complaint,  that  it  had  re- 
ceived too  little.  And  such  are  the  common  com- 
plaints even  in  this  land  of  promise,  but  I  think  it 
is  still  possible  for  Joshua  to  reply  to  such  a  com- 
plaint generally  :  "  If  you  say  that  your  portion  is 
too  little  for  your  abilities,  then  go  and  win  more." 
You  see  the  trouble  with  the  people  of  Ephraim 
was  that  they  expected  to  profit  by  a  kind  of 
favoritism.  Joshua  was  their  own  fellow-tribes- 
man, and  they  expected  him  to  give  them  land 
that  some  other  tribe  had  already  conquered  and 
cleared.  They  thought  so  big  and  strong  a  tribe 
as  theirs  ought  to  be  able  to  get  all  the  land  they 
wanted  without  fighting  and  working  for  it ;  that 
some  favor  ought  to  be  shown  them  because  of 
their  size.  But  Joshua  answered,  "  If  you  really  are 
big  and  strong,  that  is  the  very  reason  why  you  do 
not  need  any  favor  or  partiality ;  use  your  strength 
hke  men,  go  and  get  your  own  inheritance." 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  29 

It  is  much  as  if  some  boy  were  beginning  to 
work  in  his  father's  business  estabHshment,  and 
says  to  his  father :  *'  Of  course  you  will  give  me 
an  easier  place  than  the  other  clerks,  and  better 
pay,  because  I  am  your  son."  But  the  father, 
happening  to  be  a  man  of  some  discretion,  answers : 
"  If  you  are  a  true  son  of  mine,  you  will  not  be 
needing  favors.  The  advantages  that  you  have 
been  enjoying  ever  since  you  were  born  in  our 
home  ought  to  enable  you  to  give  favors  rather 
than  ask  them.  If  you  feel  yourself  capable  of 
filling  a  higher  position  and  earning  more  pay  than 
your  fellow-clerks,  go  up  and  win  the  position ; 
the  way  is  open."  Not  all  earthly  fathers  are  wise 
enough  to  make  that  response  to  their  children ; 
our  feelings  often  run  away  with  our  judgment; 
but  that  is  the  response  which  the  heavenly 
Father  through  His  providence  makes  to  His 
children  when  they  come  with  such  complaints. 
There  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  Him,  and  the 
providential  answer  to  each  complaint  is  :  "  If  you 
are,  as  you  say,  big  enough  for  a  bigger  position, 
go  and  get  it."  Listen  once  more  to  old  Joshua's 
words ;  he  stood  there  on  this  occasion,  I  think, 
as  a  true  prophet,  a  spokesman  for  God ;  **  If 
thou  be  a  great  people,  then  get  thee  up  to  the 
wood-country ;   and  if  it  be  too  narrow  for  thee, 


30  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

then  cut  down  for  thyself  there  in  the  land  of  the 
Perizzites  and  of  the  giants." 

That  is  the  way  the  larger  inheritances  are 
really  won.  Oh !  it  would  be  a  good  thing  for 
many  of  us  in  our  moods  of  idle  complaining  if 
we  could  study  a  little  biography ;  if  we  could  come 
to  understand  by  what  hard  effort  and  fighting 
some  of  our  neighbors  have  won  their  inheritance, 
some  of  those  perhaps  whom  we  were  most  dis- 
posed to  envy  as  if  they  were  petted  children  of 
fortune  on  whom  her  favors  had  been  showered ; 
if  we  could  know  by  what  terribly  hard  work  they 
had  first  proved  their  fitness  to  receive  them. 

Joshua's  answer  did  not  suit  the  men  of  Ephraim 
at  all.  They  drew  back  in  dismay.  "  The  hill  is 
too  small  for  us,"  they  kept  on  saying,  "  and  the 
broad  plain  about  it  is  full  of  Canaanites,  and  they 
have  chariots  of  iron."  That  was  not  what  they 
wanted  at  all ;  where  was  the  advantage  of  being 
a  big  and  popular  tribe,  with  their  own  tribesman 
for  judge,  if  they  must  go  and  carve  out  a  future 
for  themselves  by  hard  working  and  fighting,  like 
any  other  family  of  people  ?  But  Joshua  is  firm  : 
that  is  just  what  they  will  have  to  do.  "If  you 
want  more  room,  the  mountain  is  yours,"  he 
says.  "And  you  must  cut  down  the  forests  and 
make  more  room  for  yourselves ;  and  if  that  is  not 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  31 

enough,  spread  as  far  as  you  will  over  the  plain, 
and  drive  out  the  enemies  that  are  there,  terrible 
iron  chariots  and  all  ;  for  ye  are  a  great  people 
and  strong ;  there  is  your  inheritance." 

It  is  a  good  word  for  any  of  us  who  are  looking 
forward  over  the  future  with  its  opportunities. 
Not  many  of  us  are  altogether  satisfied  with  the 
past  allotment.  The  mountain  so  far  opened  has 
been  too  narrow.  We  have  a  notion  that  we  were 
made  for  something  a  little  larger.  The  young 
men  especially — and  you  know  these  children  of 
Joseph  stood  for  the  young,  for  Joseph  was  next 
to  the  youngest  of  all  the  sons  of  Jacob.  Always 
the  young  men,  young  merchants,  lawyers,  doc- 
tors, authors,  whatever  they  are,  are  looking  for 
more  room.  They  hope  that  the  coming  year 
will  furnish  more  room.  And  that  is  well.  Only 
how  do  you  propose  to  get  it  ?  Are  you  coming 
up  in  the  spirit  of  greedy  place-hunters  :  expecting 
some  one  else  to  win  and  clear  an  inheritance  for 
you,  to  put  your  neighbor  out, and  to  put  you  in? 
If  so,  I  think  each  new  year's  providences  will 
silence  your  complaint  with  some  such  calm  re- 
sponse as  Joshua  gave  to  his  tribe  when  he  said : 
"  If  you  are  big  enough,  and  strong  enough,  to 
deserve  a  larger  inheritance,  then  you  must  be  big 
and  strong  enough  to  go  and  win  it." 


32  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

But  I  am  impatient  to  broaden  the  scope  of 
our  subject,  so  as  to  make  it  more  worthy  of  the 
place  where  we  are  met  together.  For  we  must 
broaden  it  a  good  deal  to  make  it  fit  well  with 
the  breadth  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  The  kinds  of 
opportunity  we  have  been  speaking  of,  however 
valuable  in  their  place,  are  not  the  kind  that  Jesus 
encouraged  His  disciples  to  seek  most  earnestly, 
and  neither  did  He  promise  that  they  would 
always  find  them.  Furthermore,  His  gospel  is 
not  preached  only  to  the  young,  or  to  the  big  and 
strong  tribes,  like  Ephraim  and  Judah  in  their 
central  positions  of  influence,  but  it  offers  its  mes- 
sage with  peculiar  urgency  and  tenderness  to  the 
smaller  and  less  favored  people,  like  little  Dan,  or 
dwindhng  Simeon  and  Reuben ;  or,  far  away  in 
the  north,  Zebulon  and  Nephthalim.  You  re- 
member that  beautiful  prophecy  which  Matthew 
puts  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  account  of  our 
Lord's  ministry :  "  The  land  of  Zebulon,  and  the 
land  of  Nephthalim,  .  .  .  Galilee  of  the  Gentiles ; 
the  people  which  sat  in  darkness  saw  great  light ; 
and  to  them  which  sat  in  the  region  and  shadow  of 
death  light  is  sprung  up."  I  have  spoken  of  the 
opportunities  that  the  future  may  open  before  big, 
strong  Ephraim,  boasting  in  the  vigor  of  his  youth. 
What  opportunities  are  there  for  any  who  have 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  33 

seemed  to  themselves  small,  enfeebled,  and  dis- 
couraged, and  sitting  in  the  region  and  shadow  of 
death  ?  Why,  the  very  best  opportunities  of  all, 
perhaps,  if  only  they  are  willing  to  seize  them  and 
use  them. 

Do  you  remember  the  impatient  murmur  of 
our  great  Puritan  poet  when  first  his  blindness 
came  upon  him,  "  ere  half  his  days  in  this  dark 
world  and  wide  "  ?  A  man  who  in  his  youth  had 
been  so  brave  and  resolute  in  using  to  the  utmost 
every  talent  his  Creator  had  lodged  with  him, 
now  his  soul  is  more  bent  than  ever  to  serve  his 
Maker  and  present  a  true  account;  but  this 
dreadful  blindness  stops  him  ;  and  he  cries,  "  Doth 
God  exact  day  labor,  light  denied  ? "  But  the 
answer  is, 

"  Who  best  bear  his  mild  yoke,  they  serve  him  best." 

and, 

"  They  also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait." 

Do  you  remember  that  other  earlier  servant, 
greater  than  Milton,  but  with  a  like  impetuous 
spirit,  who  had  prayed  God  again  and  again  to 
take  from  him  that  thorn  in  the  flesh  which  weak- 
ened and  humbled  him  and  hindered  his  activity 
at  the  very  time  when  his  soul  was  most  bent 
to  make  every  talent  serve  his  Maker;  and  the 
3 


34  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

answer  came,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee : 
for  My  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness  "  ? 

Add  those  messages,  if  you  will,  from  Milton 
and  from  Paul,  to  the  message  that  we  have  been 
studying  from  honest  old  Joshua :  so  we  may  gain 
some  faint  conception  of  the  rich  abundance  of 
opportunity  that  God  is  really  opening  before  every 
one  of  us  every  day  of  our  lives  to  render  to  Him 
some  honorable  day's  service.  So  long  as  we  felt 
young  and  strong  there  was  opportunity  to  serve 
Him  by  using  that  strength  in  manfully  over- 
coming difficulties,  cutting  down  the  forests,  and 
driving  out  the  enemies  with  their  chariots  of  iron. 
But  when  disappointments  come,  or  sickness,  or 
the  infirmities  of  age,  there  is  our  opportunity  to 
render  service  to  God, — and  it  may  be  the  most 
acceptable  service  of  all, — in  bearing  this  trial 
with  resolute  good  cheer.  So  every  day  and 
every  year  are  bringing  to  every  one  opportunity 
for  the  largest,  best,  most  honorable  and  most 
acceptable  service  he  has  it  in  him  to  render. 

Oh !  but  it  is  hard  work — hard  work  to  win 
and  clear  that  inheritance — always  hard  work ; 
hard  to  do  things  efficiently;  harder  still  to  en- 
dure cheerfully  and  to  wait  patiently. 

At  first  we  were  not  looking  for  such  hard 
work.      We   were   like   those    men  of  Ephraim, 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  35 

hoping-  to  come  into  our  inheritance  by  some 
easier  course;  we  were  to  be  treated  as  favored 
children.  A  lot  that  some  other  had  taken  and 
cleared  was  to  be  handed  over  to  us  all  ready 
for  our  enjoyment.  We  expected  to  inherit  our 
father's  triumphant  faith  in  God,  his  firm  assur- 
ance of  the  reality  of  things  unseen,  his  bright 
hope  of  heaven,  his  power  of  prayer,  as  easily 
as  we  expected  to  inherit  his  dollars  or  his  acres. 
But  some  day  when  we  wake  up  to  a  sense  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  not  so,  that  we  have  not  inher- 
ited these  things,  we  are  surprised  and  almost 
indignant.  Instead  of  those  broad  territories  of 
Christian  faith  on  which  we  have  been  counting, 
we  find  ourselves  cramped  in  a  position  that 
hardly  gives  us  room  for  the  soles  of  our  feet — 
when  the  time  of  stress  comes,  and  our  easily 
inherited  faith  is  put  to  the  test  and  crumbles 
away  from  us ;  when  we  begin  to  need  most 
the  help  of  prayer,  and  find  that  we  never  have 
learned  to  pray ;  when  we  need  most  a  Saviour 
from  the  awful  assault  of  temptation,  and  find  we 
have  made  no  personal  acquaintance  with  any ; 
when  we  most  sorely  need  the  promises  of  the 
Holy  Book,  and  find  we  never  have  made  them 
ours,  and  that  we  do  not  know  even  where  to 
look  for  them  between  the  covers. 


36  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

Oh  !  it  is  very  hard  ;  we  had  flattered  ourselves 
that  the  entire  higiiway  reaching  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave,  and  to  the  heavenly  home  beyond 
it,  belonged  to  us,  bestowed  upon  us  by  some 
divine  favoritism,  because  of  the  happy  circum- 
stances of  our  birth  in  Christian  homes ;  and  now 
under  this  storm  of  doubt  and  trouble  it  all  has 
disappeared.  Everything  behind  us  and  before  us 
and  above  us  is  gone.  We  are  sure  of  nothing 
but  this  present  moment,  this  little  instant  of  time 
on  which  we  stand.  Why,  it  seems  to  us  that  no 
benighted  heathen  in  Africa  is  left  more  com- 
pletely without  God  and  without  hope  than  we 
disinherited  children  of  the  faith. 

That  is  a  common  experience,  I  believe,  and 
comes  sooner  or  later  to  many  who  have  been 
reared  in  Christian  homes,  and  it  seems  very  hard 
to  us.  But  when  we  begin  to  speak  or  to  think 
our  complaints  over  such  treatment,  the  question 
comes  back  out  of  the  silence :  "  Of  what  are  you 
complaining?  What  better  have  you  deserved? 
If  there  is  enough  character  in  you  to  deserve  a 
more  spacious  faith,  there  must  be  enough  to  go 
out  and  win  it."  But  to  win  a  faith  in  God  will 
mean  hard  working  sometimes,  and  hard  fighting 
sometimes,  and  hard  waiting  and  much  patient 
enduring.      That   is    the   way    other    men    have 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  37 

learned — it  is  the  way  your  own  father  learned 
to  believe  and  pray.  And  every  year  will  give 
you  plentiful  opportunities — every  day  of  every 
year  is  full  of  them — for  driving  back  these  cruel, 
insolent  doubts,  and  winning  a  faith  that  shall  be 
yours  to  keep  forever. 

Oh,  let  us  have  done  with  this  idle  complaining 
against  God.  The  Judge  of  all  the  earth  does 
right — be  sure  of  it — in  distributing  gifts,  both 
temporal  and  spiritual.  When  the  time  comes 
that  we  can  look  back  and  see  the  whole  course 
of  events  by  which  the  land  has  been  portioned 
out  among  the  different  tribes,  we  shall  see  that 
no  one  of  them  has  anything  to  complain  about ; 
no  tribe  has  received  from  God  a  smaller  portion 
than  it  had  fairly  earned. 

No;  no  tribe,  no  man,  has  received  from  God 
a  smaller  portion  than  he  has  fairly  earned. 
Rather,  we  are  continually  receiving  from  God 
larger  portions  than  we  have  fairly  earned.  God 
is  just  to  all ;  He  never  ceases  to  be  just,  but  He 
is  also  wonderfully  generous  and  gracious. 
Every  day  of  our  lives — this  day — what  a  mul- 
titude of  forfeited  opportunities  He  renews  to  us ! 
How  He  turns  even  our  failures,  cowardices,  and 
sins,  into  new  and  unexpected  offers  of  inherit- 
ance! 


38  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

We  could  not  understand  this  at  first ;  we  did 
not  know  it  so  long  as  we  were  boasting  and 
complaining.  The  answer  that  came  to  us  then 
was  like  Joshua's  stern  answer  to  the  men  of 
Ephraim,  "  If  you  say  you  deserve  a  larger  in- 
heritance, then  go  and  win  it.  You  shall  be  given 
all  you  earn."  But  the  moment  we  drop  that 
foolish,  fretful,  boastful  pride,  and  begin  to  con- 
fess our  own  fault  and  weakness ;  and  to  ask  God 
of  His  mercy  to  help  us,  though  we  do  not  de- 
serve His  help ;  like  the  poor  boy  in  the  parable 
who  came  back  from  his  folly,  crying,  "  Father  I 
have  sinned,  .  .  .  and  am  no  more  worthy  to  be 
called  thy  son";  then  our  answer  does  not  come 
to  us  through  such  a  one  as  Joshua.  The  stern 
old  soldier  must  step  aside ;  for  God  begins  to 
speak  to  us  through  the  lips  of  His  well-beloved 
Son,  Jesus,  who  came  to  bless  the  unworthy. 
In  our  confessed  weakness  He  begins  to  make 
His  strength  perfect;  in  our  confessed  sin.  He 
begins  to  make  His  grace  sufficient ;  in  our  pov- 
erty. He  grants  us  some  share  of  His  eternal  in- 
heritance. Then  He  will  send  us  out  to  go  in  our 
turn  on  like  errands  of  helpfulness.  When  we 
have  learned  from  Jesus,  there  will  be  no  time 
left  to  worry  that  so  little  has  been  done  for  us ; 
for  we  shall  always  be  wondering  how  we  can 


A  COMPLAINT  AND  AN  ANSWER  39 

do  more  for  some  one  else.  When  we  have 
learned  from  Jesus,  it  will  seem  to  us  that  the 
choicest  opportunity  of  all  is  that  of  doing  a 
kindness  or  a  service  for  some  neighbor. 

I  do  not  know  just  how  much  the  men  of 
Ephraim  learned  from  Joshua's  counsel— enough, 
one  would  hope,  to  shame  them  out  of  their  idle 
complaining.  But  if  instead  of  Joshua,  our  Cap- 
tain, Jesus,  had  stood  among  them,  He  would 
have  made  those  strong  Ephraimites  from  that 
time  on  a  sort  of  champions  among  all  the  tribes. 
Their  battle-cry  would  have  been,  **  We  that  are 
strone  oueht  to  bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak, 
and  not  to  please  ourselves."  Wherever  they 
could  learn  of  any  other  weaker  tribe  that  fal- 
tered under  the  assault  of  its  enemies,  any  tribe 
that  began  to  be  enfeebled  by  age,  or  disheart- 
ened by  failure,  or  in  any  way  disinherited, — for 
the  converted  Ephraimites  that  would  be  the 
dearest  opportunity  of  all, — not  a  chance  to  get 
more  land  for  themselves,  but  a  chance  to  do 
more  service  for  their  brethren. 


Ill 

THE   MONOTONY   OF   SIN 


Ill 

THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN 

"  And  he  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  : 
he  departed  not  from  all  the  sins  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat, 
who  made  Israel  to  sin."— II.  Kings  14 :  24. 

Some  years  ago  the  Sunday-school  lessons  in 
the  International  Course  were  appointed  for  several 
months  from  the  historical  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. They  included  the  history  of  the  Northern 
Kingdom  of  Israel ;  and  I  well  remember  the  gen- 
eral agreement  among  scholars  and  teachers  that 
it  was  not  an  interesting  series  of  lessons.  While 
the  study  lasted  there  was  a  good  deal  of  com- 
plaint that  the  series  had  not  been  wisely  selected. 

But  when  we  reached  the  end  and  looked 
back  over  the  whole  period,  there  was  at  least 
one  instructive  fact  to  carry  away,  namely,  that 
wickedness  is  apt  to  be  a  monotonous,  tiresome 
thing.  We  had  been  studying  the  lives  of  a  series 
of  bad  men ;  and  when  we  had  learned  about  one 
of  them,  it  appeared  that  we  had  learned  nearly 
all  there  was  to  tell  worth  telling  about  all  of 
them.  It  was  nearly  the  same  lesson,  Sunday 
after  Sunday,  only  with  a  different  name  for  the 

43 


44  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

king.  It  happened  that  the  first  of  these  northern 
sovereigns  was  named  Jeroboam,  son  of  Nebat : 
and  he  set  the  fashion  of  sinning  against  God  by 
worshiping  golden  calves.  And  whenever  one 
more  king  died  and  the  historian  was  writing  a 
record  of  his  life,  the  regular  thing  to  say  was : 
"  He  departed  not  from  all  the  sins  of  Jeroboam 
the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to  sin." 

We  grew  tired  studying  that  same  thing  over 
every  Sunday  for  six  months  :  but  just  think  how 
tiresome  it  must  have  been  for  the  people  of  the 
kingdom  of  Israel  to  go  on  living  that  same  thing 
over  and  over  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
Intolerable  monotony !  Really  it  seemed  that  the 
whole  nation  might  have  given  a  sigh  of  relief 
when  at  last  the  Assyrians  came  up  and  con- 
quered them  and  took  them  off  into  captivity  in  a 
strange  land,  where  they  might  hear  no  more  of 
"  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat,  who  made  Israel  to 
sin." 

That  may  be  an  instructive  chapter  of  history, 
I  think,  for  the  very  reason  that  it  is  not  at  all  an 
interesting  chapter,  but  so  desperately  monot- 
onous. For  the  lesson  is  that  when  a  king,  or  a 
people,  starts  out  to  be  bad,  before  they  are 
through,  they  will  find  it  intolerably  tiresome  and 
uninteresting  and  slow. 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  45 

Of  course,  that  has  not  been  the  common  idea 
about  sin — not  at  all.  Men  think  that  goodness 
is  the  uninteresting  and  old-fashioned  affair,  and 
that  sin  is  the  novelty,  entertaining,  vivacious, 
venturesome,  anything  but  slow.  We  call  a  bad 
man  fast.  Men  are  tempted  to  do  wrong  for  the 
sake  of  the  novelty,  pleasure,  change,  and  exhil- 
aration of  spirit,  that  it  promises  them. 

Now  if  that  promise  is  a  lie,  it  will  be  well  to 
know  it ;  and  it  is  a  lie.  These  sinners  often  cul- 
tivate the  manner  of  being  audacious,  venture- 
some, and  brilliant ;  but,  after  all,  how  little  orig- 
inality has  appeared  among  them  within  the  last 
six  thousand  years  ? 

You  read  the  pages  of  history,  and  as  far  back 
as  you  can  go  you  will  find  our  latest  styles 
of  wickedness  already  old-fashioned — cruelty, 
avarice,  unprincipled  ambition,  licentiousness, 
drunkenness.  The  archaeologists  have  been  shed- 
ding much  light  on  these  subjects  within  the  last 
few  years,  and,  judging  from  what  they  tell  us,  if 
you  should  take  one  of  old  Pharaoh's  courtiers 
through  the  streets  of  New  York  some  night, 
trying  to  show  him  modern  life  in  its  most  start- 
ling and  novel  varieties,  you  would  soon  catch 
him  yawning.  "We  had  all  that  in  Egypt,"  he 
would  say,  "  before  the  pyramids  were  built.    You 


46  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

have  nothing  new  in  what  you  call  New  York." 
Or  if  it  were  one  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  nobles  he 
would  rub  his  eyes  sleepily  and  say :  "  Yes  ;  but, 
you  know,  we  did  these  same  things  rather  better 
in  the  good  old  days  in  Babylon."  Or  if  you 
should  take  a  Roman  senator  of  the  days  of  the 
Empire  to  some  luxurious  scene  of  debauchery, 
he  would  complain  that  it  all  seemed  rather  tame 
and  insipid  compared  with  the  spreads  that  Apicius 
used  to  give  in  Rome  before  he  committed  suicide 
— poor  fellow.  **  Suicide  !  What  in  the  world  did 
he  commit  suicide  for  ?  "  "  Oh,  he  got  tired  to 
death  of  it  all  after  a  while." 

So  one  of  the  revelers  of  the  old  French  kingdom 
would  be  reminded  of  his  own  Paris ;  and  one  of 
George  the  Fourth's  boon  companions,  of  London 
and  Brighton.  Not  a  man  of  them  all  would 
admit  that  the  fast  society  of  New  York  had  dis- 
covered any  really  novel  way  of  going  to  perdi- 
tion. Always  some  old  Jeroboam  or  other,  whose 
monument  crumbled  into  dust  a  thousand  years 
ago,  had  set  the  fashion  for  each  of  these  latest 
novelties  in  wickedness. 

There  are  novelties  in  our  modern  world ;  but 
to  discover  them  you  will  need  some  other  guide 
than  these  leaders  in  the  ways  of  sin — the  useful 
inventions  of  our  day,  for  instance:  the  steamship. 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  47 

the  railway,  the  printing  press.  "  There  is  some- 
thing new  indeed,"  our  resurrected  ancient  would 
say.  "  We  had  some  ancient  arts  of  our  own : 
simple  contrivances  that  looked  in  this  direction ; 
prophecies,  of  which  this  is  the  nobler  fulfillment ; 
but  nothing  up  to  this.  Tell  me  the  names  of  the 
men  who  introduced  these  refreshing  and  rejuve- 
nating novelties  to  the  aged  world." 

Or  the  freedom  of  our  day,  and  the  compara- 
tive equality ;  no  slaves  at  one  end  of  the  social 
chain,  no  irresponsible  despots  at  the  other ;  the 
law  of  the  land  as  a  power  ruling  over  all ;  the 
respect  shown  for  honest  labor ;  the  reverence  for 
woman  ;  the  public  peace  and  security ;  the  safety 
with  which  a  man  may  travel  round  the  world  un- 
armed and  unharmed.  Not  that  we  have  attained 
perfection  along  any  of  these  lines ;  but,  as  com- 
pared with  what  used  to  be,  we  have  here  some- 
thing that  might  bring  an  expression  of  lively 
interest  back  into  the  face  even  of  an  Egyptian 
mummy  if  you  could  once  set  his  heart  beating 
again  and  get  the  breath  of  life  back  into  him. 

But  then  suppose,  leading  your  visitor  from  the 
past  a  little  further,  you  could  show  him  an  or- 
phanage, or  a  hospital,  or  some  such  charity.  I 
can  see  his  stare  of  amazement.  Nothing  like 
that  in  Egypt  or  Babylon ;  nothing  just  like  that 


48  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

even  in  Rome.  "  That,"  he  says,  **  is  a  stranger 
novelty  than  the  steamship,  for  we  had  a  kind  of 
ships ;  or  the  electric  light,  for  we  had  a  kind  of 
lamps.  But  a  home  for  helpless,  destitute  chil- 
dren !  We  had  nothing  like  that.  We  left  them 
on  the  hill  to  starve ;  or  bred  them  up  to  be  sold 
as  slaves,  or  trained  for  the  legions.  This  is  a 
new  idea.  Who  does  such  a  thing  as  this  ?  Why 
does  he  do  it?"  I  fear  he  might  find  people  here 
in  Christian  America  who  could  not  intelligently 
answer  either  of  these  questions ;  but  I  should  Hke 
to  watch  the  eager  interest  with  which  a  quick- 
witted ancient,  like  Elijah,  or  Plato,  or  Seneca, 
would  ask  those  questions  about  our  modern 
Christian  charities. 

Well,  from  such  tours  of  discovery  you  might 
bring  your  visitor  back  with  you  to  a  place  like 
this — some  Christian  church.  I  doubt  whether 
you  could  keep  him  awake  through  the  sermon ; 
but,  if  he  were  an  ancient  worthy  of  the  honor  of 
coming  back  to  earth,  I  should  like  to  watch  his 
face  through  the  reading  from  this  book  of  such  a 
story  as  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  Christ.  "  Why, 
yes,"  he  might  say ;  "  that  sounds  familiar.  I 
have  seen  plenty  of  unfortunate  creatures  put  to 
death  on  the  cross.  We  thought  nothing  of  that." 
But  when  he  learned  that  after  all  these  ages  the 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  49 

nations  of  earth  are  still  drawing  inspiration  for 
all  these  works  that  seemed  to  him  newest  and 
most  interesting  from  the  life  and  death  of  that 
Man  who  was  crucified  long  ago  outside  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem — "There  is  something  to  study  into," 
he  would  say.  "  It  is  new  indeed  that  a  shameful 
cross  could  be  transformed  into  so  glorious  an 
emblem  of  power."  And  I  can  see  the  man  who 
had  turned  in  weary  disgust  from  all  the  costliest 
wickednesses  and  luxuries  of  our  modern  world 
because  he  and  his  neighbors  had  been  sated  with 
the  Hke  long  ages  ago — I  can  see  him  taking  his 
seat  with  attentive  interest  at  the  feet  of  any  plain 
man,  or  woman,  or  child,  who  could  tell  him  any 
part  of  the  new  secret  of  Christian  love  and  devo- 
tion. 

Ah,  I  wish  we  could  learn  the  truth  of  it  with- 
out waiting  two  or  three  thousand  years  to  have 
our  eyes  opened,  that  some  earnest  purpose — 
some  real  devotion,  such  as  Jesus  Christ  taught  to 
men,  is  what  brings  zest  and  life  and  variety  and 
refreshing  progress  into  this  weary  old  world :  it 
is  the  salt  of  the  earth. 

Wickedness  in  its  various  forms  has  promised 

all  this  to  men,  and  has  lied.     Sin, — I  suppose  it 

began  some  time  by  some  one's  perverse  invention ; 

it  was  new  then ;  but  so  long  ago  as  we  know  any- 

4 


50  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

thing  about  the  world  sin  has  been  always  old- 
fashioned,  stale,  weary,  flat,  unprofitable.  One 
Jeroboam  will  set  the  style  for  a  hundred  thou- 
sand senseless,  servile  imitators ;  and  Jeroboam 
himself  copied  some  Aaron  or  other  sinner  a  little 
further  back.  Wide  is  the  gate  and  broad  is  the 
road  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there 
be  which  go  in  thereat ;  and  they  all  fall  into  the 
same  monotonous  gait  before  they  have  gone  far. 
Use  your  own  eyes  and  see  if  this  is  not  true. 
Watch  a  company  of  gamblers  ;  the  same  monoto- 
nous throwing  the  dice,  or  shuffling  the  cards, 
hour  after  hour,  all  night,  every  night  if  the  infatu- 
ation has  thoroughly  enslaved  them.  A  friend  of 
mine  chanced  to  pass  the  night  in  Leadville  in  its 
so-called  prosperous  days ;  and  in  the  evening, 
walking  about  to  see  the  town,  stepped  into  one  of 
its  gambling  establishments.  After  watching  the 
men  for  a  little  while  he  went  back  to  his  lodging 
place  and  tried  to  sleep.  Not  succeeding  well,  he 
rose  the  next  morning  at  the  first  break  of  day 
and  walked  out  into  the  street  again.  He  soon 
found  himself  in  front  of  the  same  gambling  estab- 
lishment, and,  listening,  could  hear  behind  the 
door  the  click  of  the  game.  He  pushed  open  the 
door  and  found  everything  going  on  much  as  he 
had   left   it  the  evening  before.     "  Has    not   the 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  51 

game  stopped  yet  ?"  he  asked  an  attendant.  "The 
game  never  stops,"  was  the  answer.  My  friend 
got  such  an  impression  as  he  never  had  received 
before  of  the  "  worm  that  dieth  not,  and  the  fire 
that  is  not  quenched."     "  The  game  never  stops." 

You  talk  of  the  intolerable  sameness  of  some 
manual  trades,  where  a  poor  artisan  is  kept  at 
his  bench  for  hours — close  air,  cramped  position, 
wearisome  monotony  of  motions.  But  k\v  artisans 
have  more  to  complain  of  in  this  particular  than  a 
thoroughgoing  gambler — only  he  does  not  know 
enough  to  complain.  He  is  chained  to  the  longest 
hours,  often  the  closest  air,  the  most  intolerably 
monotonous  succession  of  motions,  and  he  cannot 
get  out  of  that  groove.  Give  him  a  million  dollars 
to-morrow,  and  ask  him  what  he  will  do  with  it : 
"  Go  on  gambling  for  larger  stakes."  The  game 
never  stops.  So  far  as  variety  goes,  you  might 
as  well  spend  your  life  putting  points  on  pins. 

Or  take  the  sin  of  profanity.  Why,  a  parrot 
can  learn  to  swear  as  well  as  a  man,  I  am  told 
it  is  an  accomplishment  which  those  grotesque 
birds  are  specially  apt  to  pick  up — and  no  wonder : 
there  are  no  other  forms  of  human  speech  which 
are  repeated  with  such  wearisome  sameness  of 
reiteration.  If  you  want  to  be  an  original  con- 
versationaHst,   you  might   better  make    up   your 


52  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

mind  never  to  speak  at  all  than  learn  to  swear. 
Half  a  dozen  phrases  to  apply  to  all  possible 
events  and  conditions !  It  is  really  pitiful  to  see 
the  noble  faculty  of  human  speech  shrunken  to 
such  narrow  dimensions.  I  have  seen  a  dog  that 
could  express  more  sentiment  and  more  intelligent 
judgment  by  the  wagging  of  his  tail  than  some 
men  can  express  by  a  half  day's  conversation — 
the  same  oaths  over  and  over  and  over. 

Yet  boys  just  out  of  the  nursery  are  tempted 
to  swear  because  they  think  it  is  startling,  ven- 
turesome, original,  spicy.  Every  oath  they  can 
learn  was  stale  a  thousand  years  before  they  were 
born.  So  far  as  originality  goes,  I  would  rather 
be  a  street  peddler  who  tramps  about  the  town 
hawking  his  one  commodity  with  a  single  cry; 
for  at  least  he  has  some  rational  object  in  it ; 
and  when  the  day  is  done  he  can  count  up  his 
gains  and  spend  the  evening  talking  of  something 
else.  The  inveterate  swearer's  day  never  is  done, 
and  he  has  no  evening  when  he  can  talk  of  any- 
thing else. 

Have  you  studied  the  air  of  those  people  who 
have  really  made  it  their  business  to  find  their 
pleasure  in  dissipation,  searching  out  for  them- 
selves the  most  startling  and  daring  forms  of 
selfish  entertainment  ?     Their  faces  grow  jaded  so 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  53 

quickly ;  they  are  so  soon  tired  of  life ;  it  takes  so 
short  a  time  to  complete  the  whole  circuit  of 
novelties  for  them.  I  overheard  a  man  of  this 
type,  who  apparently  was  entertaining  a  party  of 
friends  with  accounts  of  what  he  proposed  to  do 
the  coming  summer.  He  kept  them  laughing 
heartily  until  he  broke  off  with  the  words,  "  Unless 
they  put  me  in  Greenwood  first,  and  the  sooner 
they  do  that  the  better."  Then  he  added  :  "  Any 
man  of  my  age  would  say  the  same  thing.  You 
young  fellows,  twenty-five  years  old,  think  it  is 
all  very  fine,  but  a  man  of  my  age  knows.  The 
sooner  they  put  me  in  Greenwood  the  better." 

Ah,  but  there  are  people  in  this  world,  thank 
God,  to  whom  the  experiences  of  life  have  not 
been  teaching  that  melancholy  lesson — those  who 
have  let  God  lead  them  on  in  courses  of  devoted 
service.  Every  honest  workman  who  fulfills  his 
daily  task  with  a  godly  purpose  toward  his  family ; 
every  bright-minded  scholar,  inventor,  or  discov- 
erer, who  has  opened  np  new  regions  of  the  uni- 
verse for  the  good  of  his  race ;  every  reformer 
who  has  set  his  eye  on  some  distant  height  of 
liberty  or  righteousness,  to  which  he  would  lead 
the  people — such  men  may  often  have  been  ex- 
hausted and  sometimes  discouraged,  but  at  least 
their  faces  are  kept  free  from  those  ugliest  lines 


54  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

of  disgust  and  weariness  of  life.  Life  has  stayed 
interesting  to  them  ;  its  successes,  and  its  failures 
also,  are  at  least  interesting.  They  mark  some- 
thing new ;  steps  along  the  line  of  progress  into 
new  fields.  If  the  aim  is  really  high  and  worthy, 
such  a  man,  so  long  as  he  lives,  finds  life  grow- 
ing always  more  interesting.  The  future  has 
always  meant  more  to  him  than  the  past.  He 
holds  his  face  forward  Hke  a  prophet.  Death 
itself  cannot  suppress  in  his  breast  this  strong 
interest  and  hope  for  what  is  beyond.  It  is 
through  such  men,  with  their  confident  expecta- 
tions, that  the  revelation  of  eternal  life  has  been 
confirmed  to  our  race. 

This  is  a  lesson  that  all  the  ages  have  been 
teaching — that  service  makes  life  fresh  and  inter- 
esting. But  the  real  secret  of  it,  the  secret  of 
service  itself,  is  love.  Jesus  Christ,  who  gave  His 
life  for  men,  first  clearly  taught  the  world  that 
lesson.  It  is  love  like  His  own,  love  caught  from 
His  own. 

One  would  like  to  persuade  everybody  to  be  a 
good  Christian,  partly  for  the  reason  that  it  would 
make  the  world  so  fresh  and  entertaining  to  every- 
body. Really,  if  there  were  no  other  reason,  it 
would  be  well  worth  while  for  some  people  to 
begin  to  follow  Jesus  Christ  for  the  novelty  of  it. 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  55 

Such  a  refreshing  change  for  a  man  who  has 
always  Hved  to  please  himself  until  he  is  tired 
to  death,  to  begin  to  think  of  some  one  else,  and 
to  live  for  some  one  else.  You  remember  the 
beginning  of  Christ's  miracles,  which  He  did  in 
Cana  of  Galilee — shall  we  call  it  a  miracle  or 
parable  ? — when  He  made  the  water  wine.  When 
the  ruler  of  the  feast  tasted  this  most  delightful 
beverage,  not  knowing  whence  it  came,  he  said 
to  the  bridegroom :  "  Every  man  at  the  begin- 
ning doth  set  forth  good  wine ;  and  when  men 
have  well  drunk,  then  that  which  is  worse  :  but 
thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now."  The 
speaker  knew  all  about  the  ways  of  common  wine- 
drinking  :  its  brilliant  promise  of  pleasure,  its 
speedy  degeneracy :  the  best  first,  and  when  men 
have  well  drunk,  then  worse  and  worse  and 
worse.  One  need  not  wish  a  more  convincing 
temperance  argument  than  has  come  down  from 
the  lips  of  that  ancient  toastmaster  of  Cana,  that 
expert  in  the  bright  promise  and  miserable  per- 
formance of  the  wine-cup  toward  its  deluded 
votaries.  "  But  thou,"  he  said,  noting  this  one 
strange  exception,  and  knowing  not  that  Jesus 
was  the  cause  of  it,  "  Thou  hast  kept  the  good 
wine  until  now,"  till  the  end  of  the  feast. 

So  it  was ;  but  even  after  a  lifetime  of  drinking 


$6  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

from  that  cup  which  Jesus  holds  out  to  His  friends, 
I  suppose  no  one  could  be  quite  accustomed  to 
its  delightful  contrast  with  the  intoxications  of 
earthly  pleasure.  For  here  each  succeeding  ex- 
perience of  the  pleasure  comes  "  a  sweet  and  glad 
surprise";  it  is  always  something  new.  A  man 
who  has  once  learned  from  Jesus  his  Saviour  to 
love  and  serve  devotedly  could  live  the  longest 
life  through  happily,  and  at  the  end  come  back  to 
his  divine  Friend,  saying :  "  Thou  hast  kept  the 
good  wine  until  now."  And  I  suppose  as  the 
seasons  of  eternity  roll  round  still  he  could  say : 
"  Thou  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until  now." 

Which  kind  of  life  shall  we  choose  ?  Let  me 
leave  with  you  two  contrasted  pictures.  One  is 
from  the  pen  of  the  great  English  satirist  who 
once  wrote  this  description  of  the  employments 
of  Vanity  Fair :  "  Pursuing  what  mean  ends  ; 
grasping  and  scrambling  frantically  for  what  petty 
prizes  ;  ambitious  for  what  shabby  recompenses ; 
trampling  from  life's  beginning  to  its  close  through 
what  scenes  of  stale  dissipations  and  faded  pleas- 
ures " ; — that  is,  as  our  text  puts  it,  forever  and 
ever  repeating  over  and  over  the  identical  sin  of 
some  old  Jeroboam  son  of  Nebat,  who  long  ago 
first  made  the  people  to  sin.  That  is  the  one  pic- 
ture, the  one  leader. 


THE  MONOTONY  OF  SIN  57 

But  the  other  leader,  the  other  picture,  is  this  : 
"  Thou,  Lord  Jesus,  hast  kept  the  good  wine  until 
now."  Which  leader  do  we  choose  to  follow 
through  the  coming  years  ? 


IV 


THE  THREE   TAVERNS:    A   MIS- 
SIONARY   SERMON 


IV 

THE  THREE  TAVERNS:  A  MISSIONARY  SERMON 

"  And  from  thence,  when  the  brethren  heard  of  us,  they  came 
to  meet  us  as  far  as  Appii  forum,  and  The  three  taverns :  whom 
when  Paul  saw,  he  thanked  God,  and  took  courage." — Acts 
xxviii.  15. 

On  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  Peter  saw  his 
Lord  glorified,  and  he  felt  it  good  to  be  there, 
and  proposed  to  make  three  tabernacles  and  stay 
there.  It  was  not  a  wise  proposal ;  the  evan- 
gelist's comment  on  it  is  that  "  Peter  knew  not 
what  he  spake."  Dr.  Babcock's  comment  on  the 
same  verse  is  beautiful :  "  If  the  mercies  of  God 
have  blessedly  beset  us,  let  us  not  build  three  tab- 
ernacles that  we  may  abide ;  but  rather,  like  Paul, 
call  the  places  where  our  mercies  meet  us  Three 
Taverns,  then  push  on,  thank  God,  and  take  cour- 
age. Every  attainment  is  to  be  a  footing  for  new 
attempts,  and  every  goal  a  point  of  departure." 
A  beautiful  thought  to  connect  with  this  old 
resting  place  on  the  Appian  Road.  It  was  only 
a  resting  place,  not  a  place  where  any  traveler 
would  think  of  building  his  permanent  home.     It 

61 


62  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

was  a  place  to  catch  your  breath  for  a  moment 
or  two,  and  get  a  little  food,  and  bait  your  horse, 
and  then  with  revived  courage  push  on  toward 
Rome. 

You  know  for  Paul  these  three  taverns  stood 
near  the  end  of  a  very  long  journey,  for  all  his 
life  he  had  been  moving  toward  Rome.  By  birth 
he  was  a  Roman  citizen ;  and  yet  his  eyes  had 
never  seen  the  great  city  of  his  citizenship ;  but 
now  for  many  years  he  had  felt  himself  drawn 
toward  it  by  an  attraction  that  grew  stronger 
and  stronger,  till  it  was  beyond  resisting.  This 
was  not  the  idle  curiosity  of  a  tourist  or  an 
antiquarian ;  it  was  not  that  he  longed  to  see  the 
old  Forum  and  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  and  the 
splendid  palaces  of  the  Caesars.  Not  that;  but 
Rome  had  now  become  the  center  of  the  world, 
the  heart  from  which  throbbed  forth  the  vital  cur- 
rents of  the  world's  civilization ;  for  this  was  the 
period  when  that  third  great  wall  encompassed 
the  city  ;  not  the  first  wall  of  Romulus,  with  its 
limited  inclosure  around  the  Palatine  Hill ;  not 
the  second  of  Servius  TuUius,  a  little  larger,  but 
barely  inclosing  the  Seven  Hills.  In  Paul's  day 
the  wall  of  Rome  followed  that  immense  circuit 
at  the  very  boundaries  of  civilization,  up  in  Britain, 
and  through  the  German  forests,  and  far  eastward 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  63 

into  Asia,  and  southward  into  Africa,  wherever 
the  Roman  legions  were  beating  back  the  barba- 
rians. That  was  the  wall.  The  center,  the  heart 
of  that  magnificent  world-empire,  was  still  the 
ancient  city  on  the  banks  of  the  Tiber.  It  was 
almost  beyond  the  powers  of  the  human  mind  to 
conceive  such  a  stretch  of  dominion  as  Rome  had 
now  acquired.  The  world  had  known  nothing 
like  it  before ;  the  greatest  of  earlier  empires, 
Egypt,  Babylon,  Macedonia,  only  ranked  now  as 
subordinate  provinces  of  Rome.  The  great  Julius, 
and  each  of  his  successors  after  him,  did  "  bestride 
the  narrow  world  like  a  Colossus  " ;  but  generally 
the  stride  was  too  much  for  the  man.  His  head 
was  crazed  by  such  an  elevation.  A  strange 
streak  of  madness  became  the  hereditary  curse 
of  the  imperial  family.  Tiberius,  Caligula,  Nero — 
they  all  were  maniacs,  and  not  many  of  the  line 
were  altogether  sane.  No  family  of  men  had 
yet  been  developed  on  the  planet  whose  faculties 
would  be  commensurate  with  this  immense  expan- 
sion of  power.  Indeed,  since  the  death  of  the  great 
Augustus  I  am  not  sure  that  a  single  man  had 
appeared  on  earth  with  thoughts  and  ambitions 
large  enough  to  match  the  power  of  the  Caesars, 
except  one ;  and  that  one  was  this  impatient  trav- 
eler who  now  caught  his  breath  for  a  little  while 


64  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

at  the  Three  Taverns  before  he  started  on  for  the 
last  stage  of  his  journey  toward  Rome.  God  had 
raised  up  one  man  at  last  and  made  him  big 
enough  to  discern  and  use  these  matchless  oppor- 
tunities of  the  Roman  Empire. 

We  have  always  recognized  the  hand  of  divine 
providence  in  the  growth  of  Rome's  power  as 
preparatory  to  the  spread  of  Christianity.  As  in 
Palestine  God  had  been  dealing  with  His  own 
chosen  people  of  Israel  through  the  ages,  reveal- 
ing His  will  through  their  prophets  till  at  last 
the  Christ  was  born  among  them ;  so  in  Italy  He 
had  been  raising  up  another  people,  and  making 
them  strong  to  fight  and  wise  to  organize  and 
skillful  to  build,  that  they  might  break  down  the 
narrow  national  boundaries  of  antiquity,  and  bind 
the  many  nations  together  by  bonds  of  a  common 
law  and  common  language ;  building  out  also 
every  way  those  grand  roads  on  which  Christ's 
missionaries  might  march  swiftly  on  their  errands 
of  salvation ;  I  say  we  have  always  recognized 
this  providential  purpose  in  the  growth  of  Rome's 
political  power.  But  within  the  last  few  years 
the  scholars  have  been  making  clearer  to  us  how 
large  a  part  was  played  in  carrying  out  that  provi- 
dential purpose  by  this  one  man  Paul,  for  he  was 
in  truth  a  Roman  citizen.     He  was  a  Jew  also,  a 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  6$ 

Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews  ;  but  his  thoughts  of  gov- 
ernment and  law  were  rather  Roman  than  Jewish. 
He  made  friends  with  a  Roman  centurion  more 
easily  than  with  a  Jewish  priest.  Almost  from 
the  beginning  of  his  missionary  labors  he  availed 
himself  of  the  Roman  provincial  organization  ;  he 
adapted  himself  to  it,  or  rather  constrained  it  to 
serve  him,  his  deliberate  purpose  being  to  claim 
for  Jesus  Christ  that  whole  world  which  Rome 
had  brou^t  into  the  unity  of  a  common  law  and 
civilization. 

No  more  enlightening  book  on  any  biblical  sub- 
ject has  been  published  within  the  last  decade  than 
the  work  by  Professor  Ramsay,  of  the  University 
of  Aberdeen,  in  which  he  treats  of  these  very  facts, 
and  to  which  he  gives  the  significant  title,  "  St. 
Paul,  the  Traveler  and  the  Roman  Citizen."  Yes, 
he  was  f/ie  Roman  Citizen.  Other  men  might 
claim  some  partial  and  superficial  relation  to  the 
privilege  of  citizenship,  like  that  chief  captain  in 
the  castle  in  Jerusalem,  who  said,  with  a  sigh : 
"  With  a  great  sum  obtained  I  this  freedom"  ;  but 
Paul  could  answer,  "  I  was  free  born."  No  wonder 
then  that  Paul  should  have  been  drawn  by  so 
strong  an  attraction  to  the  imperial  city  where  he 
belonged  by  birth,  and  should  have  been  writing 
for  years  to  the  Roman  Christians  of  his  earnest 

5 


66  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

longing  to  visit  them,  and  to  preach  the  gospel 
among  them.  .That  was  the  one  city  in  all  the 
world  big  enough  for  this  man ;  and  this  was  the 
one  man  now  living  in  all  the  world  big  enough 
for  that  city;  and  one  of  the  great  purposes  of 
divine  Providence  for  that  age  was  faiHng  its  ac- 
complishment until  the  man  and  the  city  were 
brought  together.  Now  the  long  journey  is  near- 
ing  an  end ;  the  many  delays  and  interruptions 
are  behind  him ;  he  is  about  to  enter  the  last 
short  stage  of  it.  The  Three  Taverns  is  only 
seventeen  miles  or  so  from  the  Forum  itself; 
and  the  tired  traveler  thanks  God  and  takes 
courage,  and  pushes  on  toward  his  destiny  in 
Rome. 

This  man  of  whom  we  speak  was  the  great  mis- 
sionary of  the  early  age.  Of  all  the  believers,  he 
was  the  first  fully  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  the 
Master  when  He  said,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world, 
and  preach  the  gospel  to  the  whole  creation"; 
"  Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  .  .  .  unto  the  utter- 
most part  of  the  earth " ;  "  All  authority  hath 
been  given  unto  me.  ...  Go  ye,  therefore,  and 
make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,  .  .  .  teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  com- 
manded you."  Others  had  heard  it ;  but  they 
were  only  Jews,  their  eyes  darkened,  their  minds 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  e>^ 

narrowed  by  Jewish  prejudice,  and  they  did  not 
understand.  But  this  man,  though  a  Jew,  was  a 
Roman  also,  born  to  the  freedom  of  the  empire, 
and  when  he  heard  the  words  of  Christ  he 
quickly  understood  their  meaning ;  so  the  world 
became  his  parish.  With  boundless  ambition  he 
started  forth  to  conquer  the  world  for  his  King. 
lie  stands  forth  for  all  time  as  the  example  and 
leader  of  Christian  missionaries. 

We  want  the  imperial  ambition  of  the  great 
apostle  in  our  modern  Christianity.  I  say  im- 
perial ambition ;  it  is  so  fine  a  word  that  one  can- 
not afford  to  drop  it  just  because  it  has  been  used 
in  partisan  political  discussion.  I  do  not  propose 
to  take  sides  here  on  disputed  questions  of  national 
administration  ;  I  do  not  wish  to  raise  those  ques- 
tions at  all.  Paul  would  not  have  felt  called  upon 
to  choose  sides  as  between  the  policies  that  had 
been  dividing  the  Roman  poHticians,  the  policies 
of  Marius  and  Sulla,  or  of  Pompey  and  Caesar, 
or  of  Octavius  and  Marc  Antony.  There  had 
been  bitter  partisan  strife,  cruelty,  crime,  and  wrong 
enough  in  the  process  of  Roman  aggrandizement. 
But  here,  in  the  providence  of  God,  stood  now  the 
result  of  that  process,  this  world-wide  empire— in 
some  ways  a  grand  and  beneficent  result;  and 
Paul  was  the  man  whom  God  had  raised  up  to 


68  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

use  that  result  for  grander  and  more  beneficent 
purposes  than  a  Caesar  ever  dreamed  of. 

So  for  us  American  Christians,  whatever  we 
may  think  of  the  process  of  national  development 
for  the  last  few  years,  we  stand  to-day  facing  cer- 
tain accomplished  results.  Of  course,  as  citizens, 
voters,  we  are  still  concerned  with  questions  of 
governmental  policy,  and  we  must  try  to  settle 
them  as  best  we  can ;  but,  as  Christians,  we  are 
also  concerned  to  use  the  result,  whatever  it  may 
be,  for  the  honor  of  our  Master  and  the  further- 
ance of  His  work  of  saving  the  world.  The  point 
I  want  to  make  is  that  we  American  Christians 
are  facing  to-day  an  imperial  opportunity  as  truly 
as  Paul  was  at  the  Three  Taverns.  If  Paul's 
breath  began  to  come  quicker  there  because  he 
could  almost  see  Rome,  I  like  to  imagine  how 
charged  with  excitement  he  would  be  if  he  could 
stand  side  by  side  with  you  and  me  this  morning. 
If  he  had  occasion  to  thank  God  then  that  he  had 
been  born  a  Roman  citizen,  I  cannot  seem  to 
measure  the  gratitude  that  would  fill  his  heart  to- 
day could  he  find  himself  an  American  citizen. 
Let  us  think  of  him  as  standing  among  us ;  let  us 
try  to  catch  his  spirit.  Let  us  call  this  particular 
Sunday  our  Three  Taverns,  and  catch  our  breath 
for  a  little  while  as  we  turn  our  eyes  forward. 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  69 

It  is  as  Christians  that  we  are  looking  forward, 
as  servants  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  must  be  eager 
to  obey  our  Master's  command  and  win  the 
whole  world  for  Him.  What  we  want  is  an 
opportunity  to  do  that — we  are  looking  for  an 
opportunity,  and  what  sort  of  an  opportunity  do 
we  see  ? 

I  was  reading  lately  an  account  of  that  strangest 
of  modern  inventions  which  they  call  wireless 
telegraphy ;  how  ships  have  been  speaking  each 
other  comfortably  over  leagues  of  ocean,  and 
through  leagues  of  impenetrable  fog ;  how  signals 
have  crossed  the  narrow  seas,  and  now  perhaps 
the  broader  ocean ;  it  is  as  if  the  poet's  dream  had 
come  true  of  "  Heaven's  Cherubim  horsed  upon 
the  sightless  couriers  of  the  air " ;  so  that  men 
gravely  propose  before  many  years  to  be  sending 
these  messages  from  England  to  New  Zealand 
through  the  air ;  indeed,  to  arrange  it  so  that  at 
any  point  on  the  earth's  surface  you  can  lift  up 
your  voice  and  speak,  and  within  a  minute  frac- 
tion of  a  second  at  any  other  point  on  the  earth's 
surface  whoever  had  the  rightly  tuned  ear  might 
hear  your  word.  It  is  a  wonderful  invention,  or 
should  I  say  discovery  ?  It  staggers  the  imagina- 
tion ;  and  yet  it  seems  only  a  type  of  the  strange 
historical  processes  of  the  last  few  years  by  which 


70  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

the  ends  of  the  earth  have  all  been  brought  within 
speaking  distance  of  our  own  America. 

How  short  a  time  it  was  ago — and  yet  how 
long  it  seems — that  we  still  supposed  ourselves 
indifferent  politically  to  everything  passing  on  the 
other  side  of  the  ocean.  Foreign  nations,  rating 
us  at  our  own  estimate  of  ourselves,  were  con- 
temptuously indifferent  to  us  and  ignorant  of  us. 
The  other  day  I  came  across  a  newspaper  clip- 
ping, less  than  five  years  old,  in  one  of  my  pigeon- 
holes, giving  quotations  from  some  of  the  Madrid 
newspapers  of  that  date.  Listen  to  this  :  **  Word 
has  just  been  received  here  that  the  Indians  are 
rising  against  the  Yankees  in  Illinois,  Ohio,  and 
other  places.  The  farmers  are  petitioning  the 
Government  to  protect  them  from  the  bloody 
savages,  who  are  burning  houses  and  killing  on 
every  side.  '  Buffalo  Bill,'  a  notorious  outlaw 
and  leader  of  a  band  of  half-breeds,  has  risen 
against  the  American  Government,  and  is  burning 
towns  near  his  birthplace  in  New  York."  Or 
this :  "  There  is  but  one  railroad  to  transport  the 
few  thousand  Yankee  soldiers  from  the  remote 
interior  to  the  eastern  seaboard ;  and  that  is  an 
old  and  poorly  constructed  affair.  At  one  place 
this  railroad  passes  over  Niagara  Falls,  a  cataract 
one  thousand  feet  high,  near  Labrador.     At  last 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  71 

accounts  the  bridge  was  in  a  very  dangerous  con- 
dition." Or  this :  "  The  country  is  not  fit  to 
hve  in.  The  cHmate  is  execrable.  Avalanches 
threaten  the  principal  cities.  As  for  the  people, 
besides  the  few  whites  engaged  in  business  along 
the  eastern  shore,  the  remainder  of  the  country  is 
one  vast  plain,  covered  with  Indians  called  cow- 
boys and  vast  herds  of  roaming  cattle."  Those 
papers  were  published  in  Spain,  to  be  sure,  and 
the  other  nations  were  not  quite  so  indifferent  to 
facts ;  but  it  may  give  a  notion  as  to  what  many 
of  them  were  thinking  about  us — if  they  took  the 
trouble  to  think  at  all — five  or  ten  years  ago. 

Now,  is  it  not  edifying  to  note  the  solicitude 
with  which  each  ambassador  tries  to  make  it 
appear  that  his  people  was  America's  one  stead- 
fast friend  through  the  troublous  days  of  the 
Spanish  war  ?  The  late  friendly  visit  of  the  Ger- 
man Prince  was  very  pleasant,  but  it  did  not  occur 
to  his  imperial  brother  to  send  him  five  years  ago. 
We  have  suddenly  stepped  into  a  place  of  great 
importance  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

Meanwhile,  willing  or  unwilling,  we  find  our- 
selves planted  for  the  time  in  the  far  East.  We 
find  our  soldiers  marching  side  by  side  with  the 
armies  of  Europe  in  the   relief  of  Peking  ;  we  find 


72  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

our  Government  suggesting  and  doing  much  to 
secure  the  poHcy  by  which  a  settlement  is  reached 
in  China — the  pohcy  of  the  open  door ;  and,  as  a 
consequence,  we  find  our  Government  the  one 
toward  which  the  Chinese  rulers  and  people  look 
with  some  confidence  for  just  and  friendly  treat- 
ment. So  it  has  come  to  pass  that  every  word 
spoken  at  Washington  is  quickly  heard  over  there 
at  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  and  treated 
with  new  deference.  That  is  to  say,  the  current 
of  events  has  swung  us,  willing  or  unwilling,  into 
this  position  of  commanding  world-wide  influence 
and  responsibility.  Our  comfortable  provincial 
wall,  behind  which  we  had  sheltered  ourselves  for 
more  than  a  hundred  years,  is  gone  forever ;  and 
for  good  or  ill,  we  Americans  have  joined  hands 
with  the  remotest  peoples  of  the  earth.  Now,  that 
is  what  we  see  as  we  look  ahead  from  our  Three 
Taverns  on  this  particular  day  and  year  of  grace. 
That  is  the  opportunity. 

What  shall  we  make  of  it  ?  If  we  were  a  lot  of 
Pharisees,  hugging  to  ourselves  our  narrow  Jewish 
prejudices,  I  suppose  we  should  make  nothing  of 
it.  We  would  think  it  our  one  business  to  mo- 
nopolize the  blessings  of  our  religion  for  our  own 
profit;  to  shut  the  Gentiles  out  of  our  holy  place. 
But  if  we  are  Christians,  if  any  of  the  Spirit  which 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  73 

Christ  breathed  into  His  great  apostle  has  been 
breathed  into  us,  these  signs  of  the  times  will 
make  us  tremble  with  excitement.  Once  more 
by  conflicts  of  the  nations,  by  the  shock  of  fleets 
and  armies,  the  way  has  been  opened  before  us. 
Once  more  God  has  set  before  His  Church  an 
imperial  opportunity  to  reach  the  whole  world 
with  His  message.  Eighteen  centuries  ago  the 
apostle,  born  to  the  freedom  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
found  large  scope  for  his  ambition.  He  might 
have  found  still  larger  scope  had  God  set  him  in 
the  world  to-day — an  American  missionary.  Oh, 
that  God  would  give  His  own  people  among  us 
courage  and  magnanimity  enough  for  so  great  an 
opportunity ! 

You  may  be  sure  that  other  elements  of  our 
national  Hfe  are  awake  to  the  present  opportunity, 
and  are  trying  to  make  the  most  of  it  in  their 
several  ways ;  but  their  attempts  may  or  may  not 
conduce  to  the  good  name  of  our  people  and  the 
welfare  of  the  world.  Our  politicians  are  awake 
to  it,  and  already  are  trying  to  make  political  capi- 
tal out  of  the  present  state  of  affairs,  to  count  on 
the  one  side  or  the  other  at  the  next  Presidential 
election.  Our  merchants  and  manufacturers  are 
awake  to  it,  quite  properly  so,  and  are  fully  deter- 
mined not  to  be  robbed  of  their  share  of  the  im- 


74  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

mense  market  opening  up  on  the  other  side  of  the 
world  for  the  products  of  civilization.  Our  dis- 
tillers and  brewers,  I  suppose,  are  awake  to  the 
opportunity — not  to  say  our  gamblers  and  all  the 
purveyors  of  vice. 

In  every  newly  opened  foreign  port  the  Ameri- 
can flag  is  likely  to  wave  over  some  establishment 
which  will  be  a  curse  to  its  neighborhood  and  a 
reproach  to  our  nation.  These  various  sorts  of 
people  are  wide  enough  awake  to  what  they  re- 
gard their  own  interests  in  the  present  emergency ; 
but  we  cannot  believe  that  any  of  them  have  fully 
opened  their  eyes  to  God's  purpose  in  this  present 
emergency.  Just  as  the  apostle  was  the  one  man 
to  face  the  power  of  a  Caesar,  and  not  be  crazed 
by  it,  so  there  is  just  one  institution  in  America 
which  can,  if  it  will,  get  the  divinely  intended  use 
out  of  this  imperial  opportunity  which  opens  be- 
fore America,  and  that  is  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  ends  of  the  earth  have  been  brought 
together.  The  white  man,  and  the  yellow  man, 
and  the  brown  man,  and  the  black  man  touch. 
The  result  may  be  immeasurable  disaster  to  all ; 
but  you  and  I  have  in  our  hands  the  power  of  de- 
termining that  the  result  shall  be  rather  infinite 
blessing  to  all.  Oh,  that  we  might  see  something 
of  what  Paul  saw  from  the  Three   Taverns,  when 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  75 

he  thanked  God  and  took  courage.  Oh,  that 
something  of  his  imperial  ambition  might  take 
hold  of  our  modern  Christianity.  Oh,  that  we 
might  discern  a  little  of  God's  saving  purpose  in 
this  sudden  extension  of  American  influence  over 
the  whole  world. 

I  have  spoken  of  Paul's  imperial  ambition;   I 
might  have  called  it   his   prophetic  discernment; 
he  saw  the  vision,  and  he  obeyed.     But  you  must 
not  think  that  he  always  saw  it  so  clearly  as  to 
make    the    obedience    perfectly   easy.      Both   the 
seeino-  and  the  doing  called  for  heroic  resolution. 
Difficulties    and   discouragements   were  his  daily 
lot ;  without  were  fightings  and  within  were  fears. 
Rival   teachers    traveled   after   him   wherever   he 
went,    undoing   much    of    his    work.      His    most 
promising  converts  often  apostatized.     He  some- 
times expressed  the  fear  that  he  had  run  in  vain 
and  labored  in  vain.    He  was  no  stranger  to  moods 
of  depression  ;  and  evidently  one  of  these  moods 
was   threatening  to   settle   over   him    as    he    ap- 
proached   the    Three    Taverns.     There    he   was, 
almost  in   sight  of  Rome.     So   near  the  end  of 
his  long  journey,  and  at  the  end  what  if  he  should 
find  nothing  but  failure  and  disillusionment  ?     But 
now   certain  brethren  from  Rome,  hearing  of  his 
approach,  came  out  to  meet  him.     It  was  a  very 


-76  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

simple  act  of  Christian  courtesy.  We  do  not 
know  their  names, — very  plain  people,  I  fancy, — 
but  they  had  kind  hearts.  They  believed  in 
Christ,  and  in  Paul,  His  servant,  and  so  they  came 
out  to  meet  Paul  as  far  as  Appii  Forum  and  the 
Three  Taverns ;  and  it  was  when  he  saw  them 
that  his  faith  flashed  up  again,  and  he  thanked 
God  and  took  courage. 

I  suppose  it  takes  a  certain  heroism  of  faith 
to-day  fully  to  believe  in  the  coming  triumph  of 
Christianity.  The  obstacles  are  immense,  the 
progress  is  slow ;  there  are  perils  and  persecutions 
abroad ;  some  of  the  bravest,  as  we  remember  here 
with  emotion,  falling  at  their  posts.  Worse  yet, 
there  is  much  to  discourage  us  at  home,  in  the 
decay  of  faith  and  the  spreading  corruption  of 
morals ;  the  diminishing  accessions  to  our  churches, 
the  advance  of  secularism.  It  takes  a  certain 
heroism  of  faith  for  a  modern  American  to  believe 
that  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  is  still  the  sign  of 
victory.  We  often  are  depressed  by  the  outlook. 
It  is  a  comfort  to  me  to  know  that  the  great 
apostle  also  knew  the  meaning  of  depression. 
But  at  the  Three  Taverns  he  was  lifted  out  of  his 
depression,  and  he  found  heart  again  to  thank 
God  and  take  courage.  So  shall  we  find  heart 
to-da)\     A  faith  for  which  men  and  women  have 


THE  THREE  TAVERNS  77 

been  laying  down  their  lives  in  martyrdom,  as 
they  have  within  the  last  few  months  in  China,  is 
not  a  dying  faith.  If  some  brave  soldiers  are  fall- 
ing at  their  posts,  others  start  for  the  front.  Yes, 
the  difficulties  are  evident  enough,  but,  after  all, 
this  has  been  a  year  of  almost  unexampled  mani- 
festation of  divine  power  on  the  mission  field. 
Have  you  heard  of  those  extraordinary  religious 
movements  this  last  year  among  the  students  in 
the  Universities  of  Japan  and  China  ?  And,  here 
at  home,  have  you  heard  of  that  University  For- 
eign Mission,  the  first  effort  of  the  kind  in  this 
country,  which  is  taking  shape  even  now  among 
the  students  in  New  Haven  ?  I  tell  you,  there  is 
enough  to  see  from  our  Three  Taverns  to  set  an 
apostle,  if  he  were  here,  thanking  God  and  taking 
courage. 

Perhaps  most  of  us  would  hardly  like  to  class 
ourselves  with  the  apostle.  That  clear  discern- 
ment, that  burning  enthusiasm,  that  imperial  am- 
bition, which  made  him  the  first  man  of  the  aee 
seem  beyond  our  reach ;  they  belong  to  creatures 
of  more  heroic  mold.  But  I  Hke  to  think  of 
the  other  parties  in  that  little  conference,  those 
brethren  who  came  out  to  meet  him  there  at  the 
Three  Taverns.  By  the  utmost  stretch  of  my 
imagination    I    cannot    see    myself  filling   Paul's 


78  FOR  WHOM  CPIRIST  DIED 

place ;  but  it  does  not  seem  altogether  impossible 
that  by  God's  help  I  might  have  filled  the  place 
of  one  of  those  brethren. 

You  and  I  have  not  come  up  to  our  Three  Tav- 
erns this  morning  as  great  leaders  of  the  Church 
in  her  missionary  enterprise ;  but  we  might,  by 
this  day's  doings  and  givings,  show  enough  kindly 
interest  in  the  enterprise,  that  the  apostle  himself, 
if  he  were  here — or  the  apostle's  Master,  if  He 
were  here,  would  thank  God  and  take  courage. 


V 

THE   POWER   OF   PERSONALITY 
A   WORD   TO   STUDENTS 


V 


THE  POWER  OF   PERSONALITY :   A  WORD  TO 

STUDENTS 

"  Behold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before  the  coming 
of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord." — Mal.  iv. :  5. 

This  is  part  of  the  very  last  sentence  of  the  very- 
last  book  of  the  Old  Testament ;  in  other  words, 
it  has  been  placed  where  it  must  stand  for  a  kind 
of  climax  of  all  that  the  Lord  had  chosen  to  reveal 
to  his  ancient  people.  The  time  was  one  of  un- 
certainty and  apprehension.  These  Jews,  lately 
returned  from  their  exile  in  Babylon,  were  much 
perplexed,  and  in  danger  of  complete  demoraliza- 
tion. To  save  them  from  this,  the  prophet  gives 
a  clear  promise  of  tlie  coming  day  of  their  God ; 
and  to  make  this  promise  as  clear  and  expressive 
and  impressive  as  it  could  possibly  be  made,  he 
names  it  from  a  man.  "  I  will  send  you  Elijah." 
Think  what  a  tremendous  impression  that  man 
Elijah  must  have  made  on  the  people  of  his  own 
age — that  now,  five  hundred  years  after  he  was 
dead,  his  name  should  still  seem  more  significant 

6  81 


82  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

than  any  other  word  in  the  entire  Hebrew  vocabu- 
lary to  show  men  what  the  day  of  God  must  be ! 

It  gives  us  some  sense  of  the  power  of  human 
personahty.  It  seems  that  God's  greatest  piece  of 
work  so  far  was  not  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  or  the 
stars,  or  any  other  material  thing  ;  not  the  plagues 
of  Egypt,  the  dividing  of  the  Red  Sea,  or  any 
other  miracle  of  Providence ;  but  a  greater  work 
than  any  of  these,  outranking  them  all  in  the  order 
of  revelation — nothing  else  than  the  raising  up  of 
one  such  man  as  Elijah.  That  is  the  last  word  of 
the  whole  old  Covenant :  "  I  will  send  you  Elijah 
the  prophet." 

Yes,  it  shows  the  power  of  human  personality — 
that  is,  the  possible  power;  but  evidently  a  power 
not  always  actualized,  for  if  you  turn  back  to  the 
days  of  this  same  Elijah,  the  impression  made 
upon  you  by  the  mass  of  the  people  generally  is 
not  of  strength,  but  of  contemptible  weakness ; 
they  seem  of  no  character,  no  conviction,  no  faith, 
no  religion  of  their  own,  and  no  politics  and  no 
morals ;  bowing  before  Baal  yesterday ;  to-day 
crying,  "  Jehovah,  he  is  God  " ;  to-morrow  bowing 
before  Baal  again — mere  weathercocks,  blown 
about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine,  always  going  as 
they  were  drawn  by  some  stronger  force  from  with- 
out; hardly  fit  to  be  called  men  and  women,  but 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  83 

rather  the  shapeless  clay  which  might  possibly  be 
formed  into  men  and  women.  "  How  long  are 
you  going  to  limp  back  and  forth  between  two 
opinions  ?"  the  strong  prophet  cried  to  them  con- 
temptuously. It  makes  one  think  of  the  wretched 
crowd  of  shades  whom  Dante  says  he  saw  on  the 
nearer  side  of  the  river  Styx,  who  had  not  dis- 
tinct character  enough  to  get  them  into  hell,  for 
"  Divine  justice  and  mercy  both  spurned  them," 
the  poet  says.  Among  all  these  people  just  two 
persons  were  well  worth  naming — one  was  this 
man  Elijah,  champion  of  the  righteous  God,  and 
the  other  was  Jezebel,  the  young,  beautiful,  daring, 
cruel  Phoenician  princess,  who  had  lately  become 
the  wife  of  Ahab,  and  at  once  proved  herself  the 
real  ruler  of  the  nation.  They  are  the  two  living 
characters  in  the  drama.  You  may  have  seen  in 
some  old  picture  an  angel  and  a  devil  playing  at 
chess  for  the  soul  of  a  man.  You  seem  to  see 
Elijah  and  Jezebel  playing  for  this  nation  Israel ; 
but  the  nation  itself,  the  mass  of  the  people,  have 
no  say  in  the  matter;  the  best  player  will  get 
them. 

At  first  the  contest  would  have  seemed  ridicu- 
lously one-sided.  Jezebel,  sharing  the  throne, 
had  all  the  resources  of  the  state  at  her  disposal, 
and  with  the  further  distinction  of  her  birth,  for 


84  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

she  was  a  princess  of  Phoenicia.  You  know  the 
preeminence  of  the  Phoenicians  at  that  period  in 
the  world's  civiHzation ;  hke  the  Athenians  at  a 
later  date,  they  were  now  the  leaders  in  com- 
merce, wealth,  letters,  art — the  parent  state  of 
Carthage.  Their  religion  was  the  worship  of 
Baal — that  is,  the  Sun,  that  great  god  of  the  day, 
who  under  one  name  or  another  seems  to  have 
dominated  almost  every  system  of  ancient  poly- 
theism. If  you  ride  up  the  long  valley  or  pass 
between  the  two  Lebanon  ranges,  a  little  back 
from  ancient  Tyre  and  Sidon,  your  guide  will  point 
out  to  you  along  the  ridge  of  these  two  ranges,  at 
intervals  of  a  mile  or  so,  the  sites  of  ancient  temples 
of  Baal,  where,  I  suppose,  the  priests  of  that  god 
watched  for  the  very  first  gleams  of  the  rising  sun, 
that  they  might  offer  their  adoration.  Just  at  the 
summit  of  the  pass  you  come  upon  the  magnifi- 
cent ruin  of  Baalbec — the  great  temple  of  the  Sun, 
the  wonder  and  despair  of  later  architects.  Those 
immense  blocks  of  stone,  so  deftly  fitted  to  each 
other  in  the  wall, — blocks  more  than  twenty  feet 
wide,  some  of  them  seventy  feet  long, — mark  the 
strength  of  that  religion  which  Jezebel  was  suc- 
cessfully introducing  among  the  Israelites.  The 
power  which  laid  one  above  another  the  several 
courses  of  that  ancient  Phoenician  temple  was  the 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  85 

very  power  which  this  ancient  Phoenician  princess 
held  in  her  hands.  How  irresistible  it  was  !  No 
wonder  the  weak  nation  of  Israel  had  proved 
tractable  to  such  a  ruler — all  the  people  bowing 
the  knee  to  Jezebel's  god  Baal.  To  outward  ap- 
pearance the  queen  had  gained  the  entire  people — 
every  soul  in  the  land,  except  one  man. 

Ah,  but  that  was  just  it;  he  was  a  man;  and, 
as  a  man  he  weighed  more  than  any  stone  in  the 
great  temple  of  Baal ;  more  than  all  those  temples 
together.  For  a  time  it  did  not  look  so  ;  it  seemed 
he  must  be  crushed — this  one  man  against  king 
and  queen  and  people  and  priests.  The  queen 
thought  so,  for  she  vowed  she  would  have  his 
life  to-morrow.  He  himself  thought  so  in  a  mo- 
ment of  weakness,  and  prayed  despairingly  that 
he  might  die.  "  It  is  enough,"  he  said.  But  it 
was  not  to  be  so.  By  some  secret  power  that 
had  come  into  him,  this  one  man  would  yet 
outpuU  them  all ;  some  day  the  people  would 
see  Queen  Jezebel  dying  in  miserable  defeat  and 
humiliation ;  and  that  temple  of  Baal  tumbling 
into  ruins,  good  for  nothing  except  to  amuse  a 
tourist's  holiday ;  while  the  nation  of  Israel  would 
be  drawn  the  way  that  one  man  of  God  had  pulled 
them ;  and  even  five  hundred  years  after  his  death 
prophets  would  still  be   using  the  name  of  that 


86  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

one  man  and  the  splendor  of  his  triumph  to  invig- 
orate the  people's  faith.  "  I  will  send  you  Elijah 
the  prophet  before  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of 
the  Lord." 

I  do  not  know  how  fully  Malachi  understood 
what  he  was  saying,  but  the  words  standing  at 
the  end  of  the  Old  Testament  become  for  us  a 
prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  surely  there  was 
no  better  way  to  give  the  ancient  Jews  some  sense 
of  what  the  coming  Christ's  day  would  be  like 
than  to  connect  it  with  the  name  of  some  strong 
human  character  such  as  Elijah.  For  Christ's 
work  was  to  be  one  great  illustration  of  the  tre- 
mendous power  of  personality.  That  is  what  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  incarnation  means  :  it 
means  divine  personality ;  that  all  power,  the 
Almighty  Himself,  who  before  had  surrounded 
men  as  an  awful  presence  which  they  never  could 
hope  to  escape,  but  never  could  quite  reach — that 
this  Almighty  Being  had  now  set  Himself  before 
human  thought,  and  brought  Himself  into  human 
history,  through  this  one  person,  Jesus  Christ,  the 
unseen  God  henceforth  personified  to  our  race  in 
Jesus  Christ  His  Son ;  and  so  all  those  vague 
divine  attractions  which  had  always  been  pulling 
the  wayward  souls  of  men  toward  holiness  and 
truth  become  henceforth   concentrated  and  per- 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  87 

petuated  and  continually  revived  in  the  personal 
influence  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  whole  power  of 
the  Christian  religion  for  saving  nations  and  men 
measures  for  us  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus 
Christ;  and  the  final  triumph  of  Christianity,  when 
it  comes,  will  be  the  triumph  of  personal  force 
over  all  opposing  conditions. 

What  a  pov/er  it  was  that  was  set  loose  in  this 
world  when  that  one  Child  was  born  in  Bethlehem  ! 
How  httle  they  could  appreciate  the  reach  and 
sw^eep  of  this  power  who  first  looked  upon  this 
Child  lying  helpless  in  the  manger ;  or  even  those 
who  afterwards  heard  the  Boy  questioning  wisely 
in  the  temple ;  or  even  those  who  still  afterwards 
saw  the  Man  healing  certain  sick  people,  calming 
the  winds  that  blew  over  a  little  lake,  feeding  a  few 
thousand  hungry  men  and  women  ;  or  even  those 
who  saw  Him  hanging  on  the  cross,  then  risen 
from  the  grave,  and  then  ascending  into  heaven  ! 
Many  people  to-day  are  finding  it  hard  to  believe 
what  the  New  Testament  relates  concerning  those 
supernatural  works  of  Jesus  Christ ;  but  whether 
you  have  learned  to  believe  or  not,  all  those  works 
put  together,  as  exhibitions  of  power,  do  not  com- 
pare W'ith  what  our  own  eyes  see  in  the  world 
to-day  of  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus.  You 
have  heard  that  oft-quoted  remark  of  Napoleon's 


88  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

(whether  the  Frenchman  ever  said  it  or  not  does 
not  matter  much ;  he  could  not  have  said  a  truer 
thing)  when  he  is  said  to  have  contrasted  his  own 
crumbling  empire  and  those  of  Alexander,  Caesar, 
and  Charlemagne — empires  founded  on  force  and 
soon  passing  away — with  the  empire  which  Jesus 
Christ  founded  upon  love ;  and  "  at  this  hour 
millions  of  men  would  die  for  Him." 

There  never  has  been  anything  like  it  in  the 
world  as  an  exhibition  of  enduring  personal  force. 
No  wonder  if  the  old  prophet,  gazing  toward  the 
future  glory,  found  himself  unable  to  give  any  fair 
description  of  what  he  saw,  any  suitable  announce- 
ment of  the  day  of  such  a  Lord,  except  by  using 
some  personal  name,  the  name  of  some  well- 
known  man,  whose  enduring  personal  influence 
would  at  least  faintly  suggest  to  the  people  what 
the  Christ's  saving  power  shall  be  like. 

Elijah,  and  afterwards  John  Baptist,  were  fore- 
runners of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  so  by  prophetic 
analogy  we  can  reason  up  from  them  to  Him. 
But  He  Himself  encouraged  men  to  reason  on 
from  Him  to  His  disciples.  They  should  do 
greater  works  than  He  ever  had  done,  He  said ; 
for  the  same  kind  of  power  that  Jesus  Christ 
exercised  through  His  divine  character  has  now 
been   committed  to  every  Christian  to   be  exer- 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  89 

cised.  Wherever  that  kind  of  power  is  used,  it  is 
still  the  greatest  power  known.  The  most  glori- 
ous chapters  of  history  are  those  that  tell  of  some 
man  here  and  there,  some  soHtary  Elijah  against 
Israel,  or  "  Athanasius  against  the  world,"  as  the 
saying  was  ;  or  Martin  Luther  before  the  Imperial 
Diet  with  his,  ''  Here  I  stand ;  I  can  do  none 
other;  God  help  me,  Amen" — some  man  who 
by  the  magnificence  of  the  manhood  that  was  in 
him,  by  his  immeasurable  personal  force,  has  been 
strong  enough  to  set  his  own  strength  against  the 
world,  and  actually  pull  the  world  his  way. 

But  where  could  any  man  get  such  power  as 
that  ?  The  mere  wording  of  the  question  compels 
the  answer,  that  in  some  way  he  must  have  got 
it  from  God.  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  had  come 
upon  him,"  they  used  to  say  of  Elijah  and  the 
other  old  prophets.  "  He  was  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  from  his  birth,"  they  said  of  John  Baptist. 
"  He  was  none  other  than  God  Himself  manifested 
in  the  flesh,"  they  said  of  Jesus.  And  Christ's 
word  to  His  disciples  was, "  Ye  shall  receive  power, 
after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you." 
The  power  is  from  God. 

Oh,  but  we  have  been  so  apt  to  think  that  the 
Spirit  of  God,  if  He  ever  came  into  a  man,  would 
crush  out  of  him  all  strong  and  interesting  indi- 


90  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

viduality,  levelling  all  sorts  of  men  and  women  to 
one  monotonous  plane  of  pious  commonplace. 
But  can  it  be  so  ?  That  God  whose  works  have 
never  shown  any  of  that  depressing  uniformity ; 
who  gives  a  little  different  shape  to  every  leaf,  a 
little  different  shade  to  every  flower — these  traits 
of  separate  personality  to  every  several  thing  He 
ever  made ;  when  He  comes  to  deal  with  men  and 
women,  the  only  earthly  creatures  He  has  who 
really  deserve  to  be  called  persons,  do  you  sup- 
pose that  with  them  His  purpose  will  be  to  crush 
out  and  smooth  away  all  these  attractive  personal 
traits,  and  exalt  His  own  glory  by  rubbing  but 
His  own  creation  ?  No,  no ;  look  at  a  man  like 
Simon  Peter,  before  the  Spirit  of  God  filled  him, 
and  then  afterwards :  before  it,  that  trembling 
coward  in  the  high  priest's  palace ;  after  it,  that 
audacious  denouncer  of  the  whole  Jewish  nation 
on  his  Pentecostal  pulpit — look  at  him,  if  you 
have  ever  thought  that  breathing  in  the  Spirit  of 
God  could  make  a  man  smaller.  The  man  was 
only  half-made  before ;  the  best  part  of  him  had 
not  appeared  ;  no  one  dreamed  how  much  was  in 
him,  and  he  himself  least  of  all.  He  never  came 
to  himself  until  he  came  to  God — until  the  Spirit 
of  the  living  God  came  into  him. 

We  are  talking  about  the  power  of  human  per- 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  91 

sonality — the  possible  power ;  the  power  of  man- 
hood, when  you  can  really  find  a  full-grown  man. 
Do  you  know%  if  there  is  any  place  in  this  world 
where  one  ought  to  make  sure  of  finding  at  least 
one  or  two  of  them  it  should  be  in  a  great  school  ? 
Our  colleges  and  universities  are  homes  of  learn- 
ing, of  course  ;  but  that  must  not  be  the  whole 
of  it,  nor  the  best  of  it.  That  a  scholar  should 
have  read  through  a  few  books,  more  or  less, 
may  be  important,  but  it  is  not  the  most  important 
matter.  In  what  we  call  a  liberal  education,  as 
distinct  from  a  merely  technical  education,  the 
mere  learning  is  always  subsidiary  to  culture — 
culture  of  manhood.  Men  are  what  we  want.  Not 
mere  depositories  of  information — your  library  is 
that ;  or  calculating  or  investigating  machines — 
your  laboratory  is  that ;  but  men  who  have  really 
come  to  themselves,  who  have  been  lifted  out  of 
the  disorganized  mass  of  commonplace  humanity ; 
who  have  some  personal  conviction  and  personal 
character,  and  therefore,  in  the  long  campaign  of 
light  against  darkness,  order  against  chaos,  right 
against  wrong,  heaven  against  hell,  can  exert  some 
personal  force  for  determining  events. 

They  needed  such  men  long  ago  in  the  olden 
time,  when  poor  Israel,  like  a  flock  of  foolish 
sheep,   were    ready  to    trot  after  any  and   every 


92  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

leader  who  whistled  to  them — all  worshiping 
Baal  one  day,  the  next  day  all  crying,  "Jehovah, 
He  is  the  God."  At  that  time,  what  saved  the 
entire  nation  from  ruin  was  the  presence  among 
them  of  one  man  of  culture.  I  say  of  culture; 
Elijah's  scholarship  we  have  no  means  of  testing, 
though,  I  suspect,  he  might  have  stood  even  such 
an  examination  better  than  most  of  his  contempo- 
raries ;  for  it  appears  that  "  the  sons  of  the 
prophets,"  the  scholars  of  the  day,  all  owned  him 
as  master ;  but,  at  all  events,  his  culture  we  can 
test,  for  we  know  that  he  was  a  man  grown ;  he 
had  come  to  himself;  he  stood  for  personal  power 
enough  to  hold  back  a  whole  nation  from  apostacy. 
They  needed  such  a  person  then,  but  I  think 
we  have  almost  equal  need  of  such  persons  to-day. 
Any  description  of  the  strange  characterlessness 
of  the  masses  of  people  in  ancient  Israel  would 
not  need  very  much  changing  to  fit  it  to  the 
masses  of  people  in  a  modern  state — so  many  of 
them  without  convictions  of  their  own,  or  faith, 
or  morals,  or  political  principle.  You  can  find 
nothing  stranger  in  all  Jewish  history  in  the  way 
of  religious  vagary  than  our  own  time  has  seen  in 
the  growth  of  Mormonism  out  in  Utah.  I  doubt 
if  a  complete  record  of  Jewish  political  history 
would  reveal  anything  stranger  than  some  of  the 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  93 

infectious  delusions  that  have  afflicted  our  voters 
from  time  to  time  on  the  subject  of  the  currency. 
And  as  to  morals,  the  deal  that  Queen  Jezebel 
made  with  the  elders  of  the  city  by  which  she  got 
possession  of  poor  Naboth's  vineyard  for  her  hus- 
band, the  king,  was  no  more  unscrupulous  than 
some  of  the  manceuvers  by  which  the  saloon- 
keepers and  lawbreakers  have  maintained  their 
power  over  the  municipal  government  in  our  larger 
cities.  The  masses  of  the  people  cannot  be  ac- 
cused of  enjoying  all  these  things, — they  are 
ashamed  of  them,  but  they  seem  not  to  know 
enough  to  stop  them  ;  they  appear  to  be  drifting 
about  after  every  chance  leader  in  politics,  in 
fashion,  in  moral  custom,  in  religious  belief  Each 
new  doctrine,  however  crazy,  has  its  host  of  dis- 
ciples. What  we  need,  and  always  have  needed, 
and  always  shall  need  for  the  public  safety,  is  a 
man,  here  and  there,  among  the  crowd — one  who 
is  no  longer  a  child  blown  about  by  every  wind 
of  doctrine,  but  a  man  grown,  able  to  think  his 
own  thoughts,  see  with  his  own  eyes,  choose  his 
own  ground  and  hold  it,  whatever  others  say  and 
wherever  others  go — that  is,  a  man  of  culture, 
strong  enough  to  stand  for  something,  and  leave 
a  mark  that  will  stay  in  the  course  of  human 
events. 


94  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

I  would  be  far  from  saying  that  such  culture  is 
to  be  found  only  among  college  graduates.  To 
think  so  would  be  the  height  of  scholastic  pharisa- 
ism.  But  I  will  say  that  a  chief  purpose  of  all 
university  training  must  be  to  furnish  that  kind  of 
culture,  and  that  any  graduate  who  fails  to  show 
some  degree  of  it  has  not  made  the  best  use  of 
the  privileges  afforded  him. 

The  whole  world  has  been  moved  more  than 
once  by  what  started   quietly  in   some   college — 
two  or  three   students  moving  each  other,  or  all 
moved  by  a  teacher,  and  the  movement  spreading 
to  the  ends   of  the  earth  ;  two  or  three  college 
boys  praying  round  a  haystack  at  Williamstown 
fourscore  years  ago,  and   soon  all  the  nations  of 
heathendom  will   be  covered  with  American  mis- 
sions.    Wesley  and  two  or  three  others  at  Oxford 
roused  to  more  earnest  prayer  for  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  soon  a  new  wave  of  spiritual  power  will 
be  felt  all  over  Christendom.     Indeed,  the  later 
revival  in  the  Church  of  England  whose  end  is  not 
yet,  started  with  Newman  and  Pusey  and  Keble 
and  other  scholars  at  Oxford.    Back  a  little  further, 
Luther  and  another  scholar  or  two  at  Wittenberg, 
digging  earnestly  into  the  old  Bible,  and  soon  all 
Europe  will  be  shaken  by  the  great  Reformation. 
And  long  before,  in  Galilee,  the  beginning  of 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  95 

the  gospel  was  that  the  Master  drew  a  few  dis- 
ciples about  Him.  "The  Master";  for  you  know 
that  is  the  one  commonest  title  for  our  Lord  in 
the  gospel  history ;  and  the  word  does  not  mean 
master  in  the  sense  that  one  might  be  master  of  a 
house,  or  of  a  ship,  or  of  a  company  of  servants  : 
it  is  the  schoolmaster,  teacher;  and,  therefore, 
those  who  turned  to  Jesus  were  disciples,  scholars. 
In  other  words,  it  was  a  little  college  which  Jesus 
estabhshed  in  GaHlee  as  the  beginning  of  His 
church  and  kingdom — a  college  without  endow- 
ment, without  dormitories  or  lecture  halls,  without 
library  or  fixed  place  of  abode,  or  any  other  of 
the  kinds  of  equipment  which  can  be  purchased 
with  money.  But  this  college  had  forms  of  equip- 
ment such  as  never  can  be  got  with  money. 
There  was  a  Teacher,  and  there  were  learners, 
all  associated  in  such  ways  that  they  should  be 
of  the  greatest  possible  service  to  one  another; 
and,  indeed,  a  spirit  of  very  cordial  good  fellow- 
ship among  these  learners  was  one  of  the  best 
lessons  they  got  from  their  teacher — that  they 
should  love  one  another  as  He  had  loved  them. 
The  result  of  a  course  at  that  little  college  was  to 
turn  out  men — men  with  such  solidity  of  man- 
hood in  them,  that  is,  so  invigorated  by  the  spirit 
of  God  which   their    Master   had    breathed   into 


96  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

them,  that  they  would  start  out  from  their  studies 
with  Him  and  proceed  to  turn  the  whole  world 
upside  down. 

Have  you  reflected  that  the  only  work  that 
Jesus  did  in  the  world  whose  results  seemed  to 
survive  after  His  own  short  life  came  to  an  end, 
was  the  founding  and  teaching  of  this  college? 
The  people  had  expected  other  things  and  greater 
things  of  Him  for  a  while.  Many  were  amazed  by 
His  wonderful  works  for  a  while ;  the  multitudes 
were  stirred  by  His  strange  tone  of  authority; 
rumors  were  in  the  air  that  He  should  be  made 
a  King.  But,  one  day,  His  enemies  took  Him 
and  nailed  Him  to  His  cross,  and  then  all  those 
anticipations  of  greatness  vanished.  After  Christ 
was  gone,  the  only  discoverable  result  of  His  work 
in  the  world  was  this  little  company  of  disciples 
left  behind  Him ;  this  little  company  of  learners, 
young  men  whom  He  had  drawn  about  Him  and 
kept  near  Him,  making  them  trust  and  love  Him, 
teaching  them,  patiently  working  some  true  man- 
hood into  each  of  them.  So  the  humble  personal 
influence  exerted  for  two  or  three  years  over  these 
twelve  scholars  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  the 
power  of  Jesus  to  move  the  whole  world. 

In  every  college  community  there  is  still  a  great 
chance  for  a  man  to  count  for  something.     Even 


THE  POWER  OF  PERSONALITY  97 

in  a  college  there  are  apt  to  be  many  who  have 
not  yet  learned  anything  better  than  to  swell  a 
crowd  and  drift  with  a  crowd.  But  wherever  you 
can  find  among  them  a  man  who  has  some  faith 
of  his  own,  some  conviction,  some  moral  principle, 
and  who  can  stand  for  his  principles,  though  he 
should  have  to  stand  alone,  even  in  college  that 
is  a  most  valuable  discovery;  every  such  man 
counts. 


VI 


"BUT  IF  NOT" 


VI 

"BUT  IF  NOT" 

"  But  if  not,  be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not 
serve  thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast  set 
up." — Daniel  iii.  i8. 

There  are  two  books  in  the  Old  Testament 
which  have  stirred  up  an  unusual  amount  of 
critical  controversy — the  Book  of  Jonah  and  the 
Book  of  Daniel.  Some  of  us,  who  are  tired  of 
controversy,  and  would  rather  feed  our  souls  with 
such  truths  and  scriptures  as  we  can  be  sure  of,  may 
have  incHned  to  neglect  these  books  for  this  rea- 
son ;  but  it  is  a  mistake.  However  you  understand 
them,  and  to  whatever  human  authors  you  credit 
them,  these  two  books  stand  among  the  greatest 
even  of  these  inspired  writings  :  the  Book  of  Jonah, 
with  its  splendid  revelation  of  God's  compassion 
toward  all  His  creatures,  even  to  the  little  chil- 
dren and  the  dumb  cattle  of  the  heathen  city  of 
Nineveh ;  and  the  Book  of  Daniel,  which  offers, 
as  Dean  Stanley  says,  "  the  first  essay  at  a  philos- 
ophy of  history — the  first  recognition  of  the  truth 
that  the  story  of  the  fortunes  of  humanity  is  not 

lOI 


I02  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

a  mere  disjointed  tale,  but  is  a  regular  develop- 
ment on  a  majestic  plan,  in  which  the  divine 
economy  is  as  deeply  concerned  as  in  the  fate 
of  the  Chosen  People." 

But  the  Book  of  Daniel  is  more  than  a  philos- 
ophy of  universal  history :  it  is  also  a  sort  of  epic 
of  martyrdom.  Our  Lord  said,  in  His  Beati- 
tudes :  "  Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake  :  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  " ;  and  if  you  want  a  whole  book  full 
of  splendid  illustration  and  confirmation  of  that 
saying,  you  find  it  in  this  Book  of  Daniel. 

Take  these  Hebrew  children,  with  their  outland- 
ish names,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego : 
they  seem  to  stand  as  typical  representatives  of 
all  God's  martyred  saints  in  all  the  ages;  the 
fierce  heat  of  that  furnace,  seven  times  heated, 
with  which  King  Nebuchadnezzar  threatened 
them,  brings  to  our  thought  all  the  hot  fires  of 
persecution  wherever  and  whenever  they  may 
have  been  kindled ;  it  might  be  in  Babylon,  or  it 
might  be  in  Jerusalem,  or  in  Rome,  or  at  Smith- 
field,  or  at  Oxford,  or  in  Paotingfu. 

"  Will  you,  or  will  you  not,  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship my  golden  image?"  says  the  king.  In  the 
record  his  name  happens  to  be  Nebuchadnezzar ; 
but  it  might  be  almost  any  other  name ;  for  that 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  103 

is  the  kind  of  question  despotic  kings  and  queens 
have  always  been  asking  of  their  subjects.  "  Will 
you,  or  will  you  not,  fall  down  and  worship  the 
image  that  I  have  set  up  ? "  And  most  of  the 
people  have  always  made  haste  to  answer,  **  Why, 
yes,  your  majesty,  anything  you  say."  For  is  not 
this  speaker  the  king,  and  has  he  not  the  power, 
if  they  displease  him,  to  cast  them  into  the  burn- 
ing, fiery  furnace  ?  Indeed,  most  of  the  people 
fall  down  and  worship  his  image  before  he  has 
had  time  to  ask  them  to  worship  it. 

But  there  may  be  some  who  hesitate,  some 
three  or  four — non-conformists,  you  might  call 
them — who  are  not  quite  ready  to  take  their 
rehgion  at  a  king's  command,  or  to  put  their 
conscience  into  his  keeping.  They  hesitate,  as  if 
they  might  possibly  refuse  to  fall  down  and  wor- 
ship. And  when  the  angry  king  turns  toward 
them  and  says,  for  the  last  time,  **  Will  you  bow 
down  and  worship?  Quick;  answer  yes  or  no," 
I  tell  you  the  whole  world  waits  to  hear  the  an- 
swer. It  will  be  worthy  of  an  epic  poem  if  they 
give  the  right  answer.  In  comparison  with  them, 
all  the  rest  of  the  nation  are  of  no  account  now ; 
those  other  people  w^io  will  worship  obediently 
whatever  the  king  says, — Bel,  or  Dagon,  or  Baal, 
or  Jehovah,  or  Nebuchadnezzar's  image, — they  are 


I04  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

not  worth  counting  now ;  we  do  not  care  whether 
there  are  a  hundred  of  them,  or  a  hundred  million. 
But  these  three  men,  who  have  nearly  decided  to 
settle  the  great  matter  for  themselves — the  most 
important  question  of  human  history  so  far  has 
been.  What  sort  of  reply  are  those  three  men 
going  to  make  to  the  king?  If,  after  a  pause,  they 
should  answer,  with  the  rest,  "  Yes,  O  king,  we 
will  fall  down  and  worship  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
people.  It  must  be  right,  since  the  king  com- 
1  mands  it  and  all  the  people  do  it ;  and,  anyway, 
I  that  furnace  is  too  hot  to  think  of;  we  will  con- 
i  form  " — if  that  is  their  reply,  then  instantly  these 
men  lose  all  interest  for  us.  Turn  over  the  page ; 
see  if  we  can  find  any  other  man  or  set  of  men 
better  worth  reading  about. 

But  if  these  three  men  will  not  say  "  Yes,"  if 
they  still  maintain  their  stubborn  non-conformity, 
then  we  do  not  turn  over  the  pages.  We  have 
to  wait,  the  whole  world  seems  to  be  waiting,  for 
their  further  reply. 

In  Babylon  these  three  men  would  not  say 
"  Yes " ;  the  king's  act  of  uniformity  would  not 
work  with  them.  They  said  **  No  ";  and  they  said 
it  deliberately,  thoughtfully,  facing  all  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  case,  and  in  the  face  of  them  all  they 
still  said  "  No."     Let  me  read  their  answer  in  full, 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  105 

for  men  have  not  often  spoken  words  better  worth 
hearing. 

"  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego,  answered 
and  said  to  the  king,  O  Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are 
not  careful  to  answer  thee  in  this  matter.  If  it  be 
so,  our  God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to  deliver  us 
from  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  and  He  will  deliver 
us  out  of  thine  hand,  O  king.  But  if  not,  be  it 
known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve 
thy  gods,  nor  worship  the  golden  image  which 
thou  hast  set  up." 

They  face  these  two  possibilities  :  "  If  it  be  so  " ; 
**  if  not,"  It  may  be  that  their  God  will  yet  deliver 
them  from  Nebuchadnezzar's  power.  The  com- 
mon run  of  people  could  not  so  much  as  conceive 
of  that  possibility.  Nebuchadnezzar's  power 
seemed  so  great  and  manifest  that  they  believed 
it  irresistible.  None  could  deliver  any  one  out  of 
his  hand.  Their  sense  and  imagination  were  alto- 
gether overwhelmed  by  his  royal  magnificence. 
But  there  always  have  been  some  who  could  see 
more  clearly,  some  three  or  four  men  who  were 
not  quite  so  much  dazzled  by  Nebuchadnezzar. 
His  power  is  great,  but  they  can  see  that  it  is  not 
absolute  or  eternal.  There  might  be  some  hopes 
for  an  opposition  party  even  in  Babylon  ;  and  if 
some  day  the  king  issues  a  particularly  outrageous 


io6  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

decree,  they  think  there  is  a  chance  that  it  might 
be  successfully  resisted.  If  the  chance  seems  a 
fairly  good  one,  not  a  few  men  in  the  kingdom 
will  be  willing  to  take  it.  In  the  language  of  our 
text,  so  long  as  they  think  that  God  is  likely  to 
deliver  them  out  of  the  hands  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
they  will  not  fall  down  and  worship  the  king's 
golden  image.  You  might  name  Erasmus  as  a 
conspicuous  representative  of  that  kind  of  non- 
conformists. 

That  kind  of  non-conformity  is  a  useful  thing, 
too,  so  far  as  it  goes.  It  is  a  sort  of  faith  in  the 
invisible.  To  believe  that  Nebuchadnezzar  is  not 
so  bisf  as  he  looks ;  to  beHeve  that  there  is  some 
Being  stronger  than  he ;  and  that  if  brave  men  set 
themselves  vigorously  enough  against  his  tyranny 
they  may  probably  succeed ;  it  is  a  good  thing. 
We  are  glad  to  find  as  many  such  believers  in  the 
kingdom  as  we  can.  If  there  should  prove  to  be 
enough  of  them,  and  if  their  opposition  is  earnest 
enough,  even  proud  King  Nebuchadnezzar  will 
think  twice  before  he  tries  conclusions  with  them. 
The  king  might  bluster  savagely,  but  if  he  had 
found  anything  like  half  his  subjects  holding  their 
heads  high  before  his  image  he  would  have  dis- 
covered some  way  of  modifying  that  edict.  But, 
however  useful  that  kind  of  non-conformity,  it  is 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  107 

not  the  very  best ;  for  what  if  it  should  prove  that 
the  king  is  able  to  carry  out  his  threat  ?  This  time 
everything  is  going  his  way,  and  nothing  is  left 
for  the  opposition  except  that  burning  fiery  fur- 
nace. Well,  then,  these  people,  Erasmus  and 
others  of  that  temper,  are  careful  to  make  their 
peace  in  time.  If  the  true  God  is  not  going  to 
deliver  His  servants  from  the  king,  then  they  will 
have  to  change  sides. 

But  in  Babylon  were  three  non-conformists  of  a 
stiffer  temper.  "  If  it  be  so,"  they  said  hopefully; 
**  but  if  not,  even  if  our  God  will  not  deliver  us, 
we  are  not  going  to  worship  your  golden  image." 

Ah,  friends,  that  is  the  one  thing  that  makes 
any  city  or  any  land  really  worth  reading  about— 
if  it  has  had  two  or  three  such  men  in  it.  It  is 
the  one  thing  that  makes  this  old  world  of  ours 
worth  reading  about,  to  know  that  in  the  worst 
of  times  it  has  had  two  or  three  such  men  in  it. 
"  Even  if  God  will  not  deliver  us,  we  are  not  going 
to  worship  the  image." 

In  times  of  religious  persecution  they  are  what 
really  count ;  and  in  other  times,  too ;  for  there 
are  other  tests  that  try  men's  souls  besides  the  hot 
fires  of  persecution.  Take  it  in  the  commoner 
relations  of  life,  as  regards  such  simple  matters  as 
honesty,  we  will  say.     In  what  we  call  the  busi- 


io8  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

ness  world,  there  has  been  set  up  an  immense 
golden  image,  which  receives  the  worship  of 
crowds  of  people.  Literally,  they  "  fall  down " 
and  worship  it.  They  flill  quickly,  and  they  fall 
far  from  every  standard  of  uprightness  in  their 
reverence  for  that  golden  image. 

It  is  a  pitiful  spectacle,  humiliating,  to  see  what 
men  will  do,  and  women,  for  the  sake  of  money — 
how  far  they  will  stoop,  how  low  they  will  grovel, 
for  the  sake  of  money.  Every  one  can  tell  you 
about  this  worship  of  the  golden  image ;  even  the 
cartoons  in  our  comic  newspapers  are  full  of  im- 
pressive sermons  on  the  subject.  They  show  you 
the  crowd  falling  down  and  worshiping  the  golden 
image ;  and  it  is  always  shown  in  a  way  to  make 
you  ashamed  that  you  should  have  to  acknowledge 
any  sort  of  relationship  to  that  ignoble  crowd. 

But  whether  the  picture  shows  them  or  not, 
you  know  that  there  are  some  exceptions — men 
who  have  not  fallen  down  with  that  crowd  of 
idolaters.  Every  community  holds  some  few  men 
of  clearer  discernment  who  can  see  that  any  par- 
ticular image  which  the  people  are  worshiping  is 
only  plated  after  all.  They  can  see  that  the  abject 
worshipers  of  the  image  are  likely  to  be  disap- 
pointed ;  for  in  the  long  run,  in  the  larger  outlook, 
they  see  that  "  honesty  is  the  best  pohcy."     They 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  109 

see  it;  that  is  to  say,  they  believe  it;  it  is  not 
direct  sight  of  the  eyes,  but  a  kind  of  faith ;  they 
beheve  with  a  good  deal  of  confidence  that  it  will 
pay  them  better  in  the  end  to  be  honest;  that 
the  honest  God  of  things  as  they  are  is  stronger 
than  the  braggart  Nebuchadnezzar  and  his  golden 
image.  Therefore,  generally,  they  will  not  bow 
down.  They  have  faith  enough  to  keep  them  on 
their  feet  most  of  the  time.  Would  there  were 
more  even  of  that  kind  of  honesty  in  the  world — 
the  kind  of  honesty  which  stands  because  it  is  be- 
lieved to  be  really  the  best  policy. 

But,  after  all,  every  man  knows  in  his  own  soul 
that  if  that  is  all,  it  is  not  the  truest,  purest  hon- 
esty. Just  suppose  it  should  prove  in  any  par- 
ticular instance  that  honesty  is  not  the  best  policy; 
in  this  particular  instance  the  honest  man  is  going 
to  be  ruined  and  disgraced,  and  the  dishonest 
man  is  going  to  make  a  fortune,  and  live  and  die 
respected  of  his  neighbors ;  it  happens  so  occa- 
sionally. The  worshipers  of  the  golden  image 
are  going  to  get  the  gold  occasionally,  and  the 
three  true  men  are  going  to  be  cast  into  the  burn- 
ing, fiery  furnace ;  and  there  is  none  who  will 
deliver  them  out  of  the  hand  of  Nebuchadnezzar. 
Well,  thank  God,  three  or  four  men  are  going  to 
stand  firm  on  their  principles  even  then.     Even  if 


no  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

honesty  is  not  the  best  pohcy,  they  will  be  honest. 
EvenTirTjrod  should  not  deliver  them,  they  will 
not  fall  down  and  worship  the  golden  image. 
Thank  God,  there  are  some  such  men  of  the  true 
martyr  spirit  even  in  the  business  world ;  the 
world  is  not  worthy  of  them,  but  its  credit  rests 
upon  their  shoulders. 

Some  of  us  were  touched  a  few  years  ago  by 
an  example  of  faithfulness  to  principle  on  the  part 
of  a  few  college  lads  in  Paris.  These  American 
collegians  had  been  invited  to  go  over  and  com- 
pete in  the  games  at  the  Paris  Exposition ;  but 
they  would  not  consent  to  go  unless  the  authori- 
ties would  agree  that  the  games  should  not  be 
held  on  Sunday.  At  first  the  college  boys  all 
stood  together  in  this  demand,  with  the  hope  that 
their  united  demand  Avould  be  effectual  and  they 
would  be  delivered  from  the  necessity  of  stooping 
to  the  continental  ways  of  Sunday-keeping.  But 
just  at  the  end  it  was  found  that  their  demand 
had  not  been  effectual ;  their  God  had  not  deliv- 
ered them ;  the  games  were  coming  off  on  Sunday. 

Then  some  of  the  boys  weakened.  I  do  not 
undertake  to  pass  judgment  upon  them ;  I  do  not 
know  what  their  personal  convictions  may  have 
been.  At  all  events,  some  of  the  boys  surrendered 
their  former  position.     But  we  were  proud  that  a 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  III 

goodly  number  of  the  boys  did  not  weaken.  It 
was  a  hard  test  for  a  handful  of  lads,  so  far  from 
home,  in  a  land  where  every  one  would  be  dis- 
posed to  laugh  at  their  scruples ;  and  it  meant 
that  they  were  relinquishing  honors  almost  cer- 
tainly within  their  reach,  so  that  their  long  journey 
must  go  for  nothing;  but  they  would  not  sur- 
render their  conviction,  whatever  happened,  even 
if  their  God  would  not  reward  their  faith  by  bend- 
ing the  arrangements  their  way  ;  these  boys  would 
not  fall  down  and  worship  the  image  which  Nebu- 
chadnezzar had  set  up. 

I  thank  God  that  our  American  colleges  are 
turning  out  some  boys  of  that  quality.  The 
record  these  students  made  counts  for  more  than 
if  one  of  them  had  outrun  a  locomotive,  or  jumped 
over  the  Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame.  Oh,  I  wish 
more  of  us  could  reach  that  toughness  of  convic- 
tion with  regard  to  our  Sunday-keeping  and  every 
other  kind  of  principle,  that  we  might  say,  "  If 
it  be  so,  we  believe  our  God  is  able  to  shape 
things  so  that  obeying  His  will  need  not  work  us 
any  real  inconvenience  or  loss," — and  very  often 
He  does — "but  if  not — but  if  not,  be  it  known 
unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods, 
nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast 
set  up." 


112  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

But  these  words  not  only  bear  upon  questions 
of  practical  duty ;  they  bear  also  upon  the  deeper 
questions  of  personal  faith.  Those  of  us  who  con- 
fess the  Christian  faith  believe  that  our  God  can. 
and  will,  keep  our  souls  safe  in  life  and  in  death,  in 
this  world  and  in  the  world  to  come  ;  that  He  will 
make  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  us  ; 
that  He  will  withhold  no  good  thing  from  us.  So 
long  as  we  believe  this  confidently,  we  can  serve 
Him  in  dark  days  with  a  kind  of  triumphant  joy. 
But  suppose  the  time  should  come  when  this 
bright  faith  is  darkened;  or  suppose  others  of  us 
have  never  yet  attained  it  ?  We  should  like  to 
believe  all  this;  we  tn^to;  we  hope  that  Jt  may 
be  true ;  but  we  are  encompassed  by  a  great  deal 
of  doubt  about  it ;  everything  beyond  this  little 
present  which  our  eyes  can  now  see  seems  so 
dreadfully  uncertain.  This  was  the  state  of  the 
old  Psalmist  when  he  said,  "  As  with  a  sword  in 
my  bones,  mine  enemies  reproach  me ;  while  they 
say  daily  unto  me.  Where  is  thy  God  ?"  He  had 
no  answer  ready. 

If  not,  what  then  ?  If  perhaps  this  hope  of  a 
Christian  is  only  a  delusion,  and  we  shall  have 
suffered  so  much,  and  denied  ourselves  so  much 
for  nothing,  what  shall  we  say  to  that?  Oh, 
friends,  remember  there  have  been  some  men  who 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  113 

could  say  even  then  that  they  would  hold  fast  to 
this  better  hope,  this  purer  purpose.  "  If  not,  be 
it  known  unto  thee,  O  king, — even  if  our  God  is 
not  going  to  deliver  us,  even  if  there  is  no  God  to 
deliver  us, — we  will  not  serve  thy  false  gods,  nor 
conform  to  thy  degrading  and  sensual  idolatry." 

When  John  Bunyan  was  a  prisoner  in  Bedford 
jail,  as  he  relates  afterwards,  it  lay  much  upon 
his  spirit  that  his  imprisonment  might  end  at  the 
gallows  for  aught  that  he  could  tell.  Yet  it  was 
not  hanging  that  he  feared  so  much  as  that  when 
the  time  came  to  die  he  might  be  left  without  a 
savor  of  the  things  of  God,  without  any  evidence 
upon  his  soul  that  all  was  well.  *'  But,  even 
so,"  he  said,  *'  'twas  my  duty  to  stand  to  His  word, 
whether  He  would  ever  look  upon  me  or  no,  or 
save  me  at  the  last.  Wherefore,  thought  I,  the 
point  being  thus,  I  am  for  going  on  and  venturing 
my  eternal  state  with  Christ  whether  I  have  com- 
fort here  or  no.  If  God  doth  not  come  in,  thought 
I,  I  will  leap  off  the  ladder  even  blindfolded  into 
eternity — sink  or  swim,  come  heaven,  come  hell. 
Lord  Jesus,  if  thou  wilt  catch  me,  do ;  if  not — if 
not,  I  will  venture  for  Thy  name."  I  do  not  think 
Jolin  Bunyan  ever  said  a  finer  thing  than  that  in 
the  whole  Pilgrim's  Progress.  It  ranks  him  with 
the  three  Hebrews  before  Nebuchadnezzar's  fiery 
8 


114  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

furnace.  "  Lord  Jesus,  if  Thou  wilt  catch  me,  do  ; 
if  not,  I  will  venture  for  Thy  name."  Something 
like  that,  I  think,  must  be,  generally,  the  begin- 
ning of  a  Christian's  faith.  It  is  not  the  end  of  it ; 
the  full  assurance  may  come  afterwards,  the  peace 
of  God  that  passeth  understanding,  but  at  the  be- 
ginning, to  believe  does  seem  more  like  a  venture. 
"  If  not,  I  will  still  venture."  Even  in  all  the  un- 
certainty, what  we  know  of  Jesus  makes  Him  more 
to  be  desired,  and  worthier  to  be  chosen  and  fol- 
lowed than  all  that  we  know  beside.  As  that 
heathen  of  Galilee  says  in  Gilder's  poem : 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, — 
And  only  a  man, — I  say 
That  of  all  mankind  I  cleave  to  Him, 
And  to  Him  will  I  cleave  alway. 
If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, — 
And  the  only  God, — I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air." 

The  faith  starts  as  an  "  if,"  "  if,"  ''  if,"  but  it  may 
lead  at  once  into  a  very  definite  and  lasting  deter- 
mination of  the  will. 

In  Babylon  the  test  was  a  literal  persecution 
of  those  who  feared  Jehovah  and  would  not  wor- 
ship idols.  Persecution  in  one  of  these  oriental 
empires  is  a  terribly  serious  matter ;  they  are  ex- 


'•BUT  IF  NOT"  115 

perts  out  there  in  the  art  of  inflicting  pain.  The 
fire  can  be  very  hot,  the  king's  rage  very  fierce. 
It  is  a  horror  to  think  what  true  men  and  women 
have  suffered  when  they  would  not  fall  down  and 
worship  in  accordance  with  the  whim  of  one  of 
those  oriental  rulers. 

Within  the  last  few  years  the  world  has  been 
horror-stricken  at  the  report  of  atrocities  in  China ; 
but,  remember,  it  is  no  new  thing.  "  Beloved," 
Peter  said  to  some  of  the  sufferers  of  his  day, 
"  think  it  not  strange  concerning  the  fiery  trial 
that  is  to  try  you,  as  though  some  strange  thing 
had  happened  to  you."  It  was  not  a  strange  thing 
— not  a  new  thing.  It  was  what  had  happened 
from  the  beginning.  It  happened  to  all  but  one 
of  our  Lord's  apostles ;  it  happened  to  the  Lord 
Himself;  and  He  had  said  to  them,  "  So  perse- 
cuted they  the  prophets  that  were  before  you." 

People  say  sometimes  that  missions  ought  not 
to  be  maintained  where  they  involve  risk  of  so 
much  pain  and  loss.  If  they  really  mean  what 
they  say,  they  should  counsel  their  friends  to 
be  honest  only  when  it  promises  to  be  the  best 
policy ;  they  should  counsel  John  Bunyan  to  yield 
at  once  to  Charles's  stupid  act  of  uniformity,  and 
the  Pilgrim  fathers  to  swallow  their  scruples  and 
never   set   sail    for    savage    New    England;    and 


ii6  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

Luther  and  Knox  and  the  other  reformers  to 
keep  their  perilously  unfashionable  protest  to  them- 
selves ;  and  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego, 
to  fall  down  flat  before  the  golden  or  any  other 
image  that  the  king  might  set  up ;  and  Peter  to 
go  on  denying  his  Lord ;  and  Jesus  Himself  to 
choose  the  devil's  way  to  the  throne  instead  of 
God's  way  of  the  Cross.  They  would  always  find, 
and  would  find  to-day,  crowds  of  people  ready 
to  follow  such  counsel.  But  they  must  cut  the 
whole  Book  of  Daniel  out  of  their  Bible,  and 
many  other  choice  passages  also.  This  Bible 
preserves  for  us  the  memory  of  men  and  women 
who  would  not  follow  such  counsel ;  they  would 
be  stoned  rather,  and  sawn  asunder,  and  slain 
with  the  sword.  "  The  world  was  not  worthy  "  of 
them.     No,  the  world  was  not  worthy,  but  the 

I  I       IMIIIII 

presence  of  such  people  is  the  only  thing  that  has 
kept  it  worth  living  in,  or  its  story  worth  reading. 
Thank  God,  there  have  been  two  or  three  who 
could  say,  "  If  we  are  not  delivered,  be  it  known 
unto  thee,  O  king,  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods, 
nor  worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast 
set  up." 

"If  not,"  "if  not,"— ah,  but  their  God  would 
deliver  them.  The  writer  of  this  epic  of  martyr- 
dom has  left  no  doubt  of  his  conviction  on  that 


"BUT  IF  NOT"  117 

point.  If  not,  they  would  still  be  true  to  Him;  but 
He  will, — in  this  world  or  in  some  other.  He  will. 
When  the  story  is  ended,  you  will  find  not  so 
much  as  the  smell  of  fire  upon  their  garments. 
Their  story,  and  the  story  of  other  brave  martyrs 
like  them,  is  one  thing  that  gives  us  our  surest 
confidence  in  a  blessed  Hfe  beyond  for  God's  ser- 
vants. 

"  Where,  oh  where  are  the  Hebrew  children  ?  " 
we  sing  with  our  little  ones ;  and  *'  the  Hebrew 
children "  mean  these  three  brave  Hebrews  in 
Babylon — '*  Safe  home  in  the  promised  land." 
We  know  they  are  safe ;  something  in  our  hearts 
tells  us  they  must  be  safe ;  and  we  go  on  to  say, 
**  By  and  by  we'll  go  home  to  meet  them,  safe 
home  in  the  promised  land."  Their  God  did  de- 
liver them  ;  He  does  deliver  them  ;  He  will  deliver 
them.  It  may  be  by  the  way  of  a  cross ;  but  it  is 
a  cross  that  brings  a  crown. 


VII 
"THE  GATES   OF  THE  CITY" 


VII 

"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY" 

'*0n  the  east  three  gates;  on  the  north  three  gates;  on  the 
south  three  gates ;  and  on  the  west  three  gates." — Rev.  xxi.  13. 

John  here  describes  in  vision  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem, Holy  City  of  God ;  but  when  we  read  the 
prophecies  of  this  Book  of  The  Revelation,  it 
sometimes  occurs  to  us  to  ask  whether  its  several 
visions  are  intended  to  depict  something  now  in 
heaven,  or  something  that  some  day  shall  be  on 
earth.  It  is  not  always  easy  to  say;  but  certainly, 
in  this  case,  the  Holy  City,  whether  in  heaven  or 
on  earth,  stands  for  the  grand  consummation  of 
all  things,  the  reward  for  all  the  labors  of  God's 
saints,  the  end  of  all  their  hopes  and  desires,  the 
final  answer  to  all  their  prayers.  It  is  John's 
emblem  for  that  one  far-off  divine  event  to  which 
creation  moves. 

How  reassuring  it  is  in  these  days  of  rapid 
municipal  growth  that  the  inspired  symbol  of  all 
good  for  mankind  should  be  a  city !  For  the 
world's  cities  are  now  growing  so  fast,  and  their 
swift  growth  brings  us  so  many  of  our  most  dis- 


/ 


122  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

tressing  and  perplexing  problems,  of  health,  of 
social  life,  and  of  government.  From  every  pleas- 
ant countryside,  and  from  other  lands,  streams 
of  population  are  flowing  into  the  mammoth  city, 
even  as  the  ancient  moralist  used  to  complain 
that  the  Orontes  and  all  the  other  rivers  of  the 
East  were  emptying  their  polluted  waters  into 
imperial  Rome.  Our  hearts  often  grow  sick  at 
the  sights  and  sounds  set  before  us.  We  can 
sympathize  with  poor  Cowper  as  he  sang,  "  God 
made  the  country,  man  made  the  town."  Yes, 
but  in  a  deeper  sense  God  made  the  town  also ; 
and  here  our  text  teaches  that  the  triumphant 
ending  of  God's  entire  work  of  creation  and  re- 
demption must  be  depicted  as  nothing  else  than  a 
city  that  is  compact  together,  whither  the  tribes 
go  up,  the  populous  capital  of  a  great  kingdom, 
a  new  Jerusalem.  That  is  the  Biblical  ideal.  As 
Phillips  Brooks  once  said,  "  The  story  of  revela- 
tion which  begins  with  a  garden  ends  with  a  city." 
In  olden  times  every  real  city  must  have  its  wall, 
a  defense  or  barrier  separating  between  the  safe 
friendliness  within  and  all  possible  foes  and  perils 
without.  In  the  case  of  Jerusalem,  it  happens 
that  the  walls  are  still  there,  forming  a  most  con- 
spicuous feature  of  the  city.  From  whatever  direc- 
tion you  approach  Jerusalem,  whether  you  ride  up 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  123 

from  the  southwest  across  the  valley  of  Hinnom, 
and  the  first  view  of  the  ancient  capital  that  bursts 
upon  you  is  of  those  massive  towers  and  the  long 
battlemental  rampart  crowning  the  heights  of 
Mount  Zion ;  or  whether,  approaching  from  the 
north,  you  draw  near  to  the  beautiful  Damascus 
Gate,  with  the  long  stretch  of  wall  running  over 
the  hill  and  out  of  sight  to  the  right  hand  and  the 
left;  or,  looking  down  from  the  east,  from  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  upon  the  old  temple  area,  you  see 
its  fortification  towering  at  a  dizzy  height  above  the 
Kidron  Valley ;  always  a  chief  part  of  the  impres- 
sion which  the  city  makes  upon  you  will  come  from 
this  massive  circuit  of  its  wall.  So,  if  you  should 
choose  to  walk  round  about  the  city,  outside  the 
wall,  letting  your  mind  call  up  the  ancient  days 
of  savage  warfare  when  those  great  stones  were 
set  in  place,  it  would  be  easy  to  feel  that  all  safety, 
happiness,  holiness,  and  friendhness,  must  be  found 
within  that  charmed  inclosure,  and  all  peril  and 
cruel  enmity  without. 

Of  course,  it  is  not  so  now.  The  old  wall 
stands  as  a  relic  of  the  past — an  interesting,  his- 
torical memorial  of  times  very  unhke  our  own. 
Really,  the  open  country  outside  might  seem  to 
our  taste  more  wholesome  and  attractive  than  the 
foul  oriental  city  within.     Yet,  however  antiquated 


124  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

and  useless,  there  the  great  wall  stands ;  and  it 
stands  a  most  impressive  token  of  a  truth  which 
is  not  antiquated,  but  true  eternally.  For  there 
are — and  must  be — walls,  barriers,  between  all 
those  things  which  belong  in  the  Holy  City  of 
God  and  those  other  things  which  never  can  be 
admitted  to  it ;  not,  perhaps,  a  wall  of  stone  and 
mortar,  for  that  is  at  best  a  somewhat  bungHng 
contrivance  of  separation,  often  shutting  out  what 
belongs  in,  and  letting  in  what  ought  to  be  shut 
out.  In  our  modern  cities  and  States,  and  in  the 
whole  structure  of  modern  civilized  society,  we 
have  learned  to  avail  ourselves  of  more  searching 
methods  of  discrimination  than  any  stone  wall. 
Those  barriers  that  separate  between  wholesome 
knowledge  and  dangerous  ignorance,  between 
culture  and  vulgarity,  between  public  health  and 
infectious  disease,  between  purity  and  vice,  between 
honesty  and  crime — the  safety  of  every  modern 
city  and  State  depends  on  such  separating  lines ; 
and  they  are  vastly  more  rigid  than  the  stone  wall 
of  any  ancient  capital.  So,  when  the  apostle  saw 
in  vision  the  New  Jerusalem,  that  perfect  com- 
monwealth of  the  saints,  which  is  in  heaven,  and 
shall  be  on  earth,  it  was  no  narrow  Jewish  preju- 
dice, but  a  deep  prophetic  insight  which  sur- 
rounded the  city  for  him  with  a  wall  great  and  high. 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  125 

That  city  of  God  does  not  yet  appear  on  earth, 
but  the  present  visible  emblem  of  it  is  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  one  conspicuous  feature  of 
the  Church  as  first  established  was  its  wall  sepa- 
rating it  from  the  world.  "  Come  out  from  among 
them,  and  be  ye  separate,  and  touch  not  the  un- 
clean thing,"  was  always  the  tone  of  apostolic 
preaching.  "  In  the  world,  and  yet  not  of  the 
world" ;  wicked  men  surrounding  it  on  every  side. 
"And  such  were  ye,"  the  apostle  writes  to  his 
converts  ;  but  now  ye  are  washed,  ye  are  sanc- 
tified;  ye  have  come  out  of  that  defilement  and 
into  the  pure  fellowship  of  the  saints,  into  the 
household  of  God ;  therefore  be  separate  from 
them.  The  safe  and  holy  city  where  ye  now 
dwell  at  peace  with  God  must  be  separated  from 
this  surrounding  wickedness  by  a  great  and  high 
wall  of  divine  protection  and  sanctifying  grace. 
Make  the  most  of  this  wall ;  be  ye  separate. 

I  say  that  was  the  tone  of  apostoHc  preaching ; 
and  in  our  later  times,  whenever  there  come  sea- 
sons of  special  religious  awakening,  you  will  find 
God's  people  more  ready  to  accept  these  same 
admonitions  as  intended  for  us.  The  Church  of 
God  on  earth,  like  the  city  of  God  in  heaven, 
needs  some  wall  great  and  high  between  those 
whom  Christ  has  redeemed  and  those  who  still 


126  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

accept  the  dominion  of  evil.  That  was  what  John 
saw  in  his  vision — a  wall  great  and  high  ;  and  that 
is  a  most  important  symbol  of  truth  as  regards 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 

But  John  saw  also  that  the  wall  had  twelve 
gates,  gates  that  never  were  shut ;  and,  by  all 
means,  we  must  remember  this  part  of  the  vision 
— on  the  east  three  gates ;  on  the  north  three 
gates ;  on  the  south  three  gates  ;  and  on  the  west 
three  gates.  From  whatever  quarter  the  weary 
traveler  comes,  or  the  panting  fugitive,  let  him  not 
be  disheartened  by  the  height  and  massiveness  of 
the  walls  encompassing  God's  city;  they  are  for 
his  protection,  not  his  exclusion ;  for  wherever 
he  comes  from,  a  gate  will  stand  straight  before 
him  to  receive  him :  always  open,  for  the  gates 
of  that  city  "  shall  not  be  shut  at  all  by  day,  and 
there  shall  be  no  night  there." 

Now  what  does  this  part  of  the  symbol  mean  ? 
What  would  it  m.ean  to  a  Christian  of  John's  day 
if  he  had  stood  by  the  literal  Jerusalem  and  had 
seen  gates  opening  on  every  side  ? 

"  On  the  east  three  gates."  I  think  that  meant 
for  John  that  the  religion  of  Jesus  held  its  doors 
open  for  all  the  men  of  the  East.  Christianity  was 
one  of  the  oriental  religions.  It  had  and  it  has 
room  in  abundance  for  that  great  continent  of  Asia, 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  127 

those  regions  of  the  earth  where  people  lived  when 
the  earth  was  young ;  when  our  whole  race  was 
in  its  childhood ;  when  men  used  to  look  upon  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  with  the  large-eyed  wonder 
of  little  children,  rather  than  with  the  careful  cal- 
culation of  our  maturer  humanity.  That  is  Asia. 
And  there  is  room  for  Asia,  and  the  whole  of 
it,  in  the  city  of  God.  The  first  Epiphany  was 
through  the  ministry  of  the  wise  men  who  went 
back  to  their  own  place  in  the  East.  Let  our 
missionaries  take  their  largest  invitations  east- 
ward ;  they  cannot  outmeasure  that  of  Christ ;  for 
three  is  the  perfect  number ;  and  "  on  the  east  are 
three  gates." 

"  And  on  the  north  three  gates."  As  John 
looked  northward  he  would  have  seen  those 
hardy  northern  nations  who  in  his  day  were  just 
beginning  to  stir  themselves  in  their  great  German 
forests ;  and  Rome  trembled  at  the  exhibition 
of  their  unexhausted  and  incalculable  energy. 
Rome  was  very  big,  but  not  big  enough  to  make 
room  for  all  these  northern  barbarians.  But  John 
knew  there  was  room  for  them,  and  for  all  of 
them,  in  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  six- 
teenth century,  when  a  young  German  named 
Luther  takes  his  stand  against  the  world,  we  shall 
learn  how  Christianity  has  united  its  own  strength 


128  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

with  those  lusty  barbarians  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  the  good  of  men.    *'  On  the  north  three  gates." 

"  On  the  south  three  gates."  As  John  turned 
toward  the  south  he  would  see  those  softer 
tropical  races  who,  lacking  the  stimulus  of  win- 
ter's cold  and  want,  have  spent  their  lives  in  a 
kind  of  perpetual  infancy,  never  outgrowing  the 
follies  and  fickleness  and  unthinking  cruelties  of 
little  children,  never  reaching  the  robust  vigor 
and  virtue  of  manhood.  A  very  low  type  of 
people.  But  there  is  room  even  for  them  in  the 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  Ethiopian  whom 
Philip  saw  riding  in  his  chariot  will  be  one  of  the 
earliest  of  Gentile  converts  and  messengers.  Those 
savage  children  of  Africa,  or  of  the  islands  of  the 
Southern  Seas,  were  not  beneath  the  Saviour's  all- 
embracing  compassion  ;  and  there  must  be  some 
special  provision  for  welcoming  them  into  the 
freedom  of  His  city.    "  On  the  south  three  gates." 

"  And  on  the  west  three  gates."  What  would 
John  see  as  he  looked  westward,  out  beyond  the 
pillars  of  Hercules  ?  Whether  he  saw  it  or  not, 
the  Star  of  Empire  would  go  that  way.  A  mighty 
civilization  would  be  developed  by  the  northern 
peoples  when  they  turned  their  faces  westward; 
there  lie  the  nations  of  modern  Europe,  Eng- 
land, with  its  empire,  America.     This  west — with 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  129 

its  commerce,  its  greed  for  gold,  its  inquisitive 
science,  its  secularism  and  materialism,  the  roar 
of  its  mills  and  railroads  and  steamships ;  a  civili- 
zation so  fearfully  complex,  offering  the  sharpest 
possible  contrast  to  those  simple  conditions  of 
life  among  which  Christ  and  His  disciples  had 
founded  the  infant  Church.  Yet  within  that 
Church  room  must  be  found  for  the  west.  Paul, 
the  first  great  missionary,  will  steadfastly  set  his 
face  westward  toward  Italy  and  Spain.  All  these 
amazing  developments  of  the  last  few  centuries 
were  not  omitted  from  the  divine  view  when  God 
was  preparing  salvation  for  the  world.  He  in- 
cluded them  all  in  the  architectural  plan  of  His 
great  city.     "  On  the  west  three  gates." 

Oh,  what  a  magnificent  picture  the  inspired  seer 
has  set  before  us  of  that  city  whose  builder  and 
maker  is  God — that  city  which  God  is  preparing 
for  all  His  children !  Not  the  old  Jerusalem, 
capital  of  the  little  Jewish  state,  a  city  once  highly 
favored,  but  selfish  and  unfaithful,  and  her  glory 
soon  to  pass  away ;  but  the  new  Jerusalem,  a  city 
of  more  generous  magnitude ;  for  the  nations  of 
them  which  are  saved  shall  walk  in  the  light  of  it, 
and  the  kings  of  the  earth  do  bring  their  glory 
and  honor  into  it ;  and  its  wall  is  great  and  high, 
to  shut  out  from  it  everything  that  defileth,  and 

9 


I30  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

worketh  abomination,  and  maketh  a  lie.  But  in 
the  wall  there  are  twelve  gates,  and  they  shall  not 
be  shut  at  all — on  the  east  three,  and  on  the  north 
three,  on  the  south  three,  and  on  the  west  three. 

It  is  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  that  city  which 
does  not  yet  appear  on  earth ;  but  every  true 
church  of  Jesus  Christ  should  stand  as  a  copy 
of  it,  like  the  ancient  tabernacle,  being  made  after 
the  pattern  which  has  been  shown  us  in  the 
Mount.  As  we  have  seen,  a  wall  surrounds  every 
church — a  wall  of  scrupulous  separation  from  the 
pride  and  greed  and  selfish  ambition  and  cruel, 
corrupting  pleasures  of  a  godless  world ;  but  the 
wall  must  be  furnished  with  ever-open  gates, 
opening  on  every  side — on  the  east,  on  the  north, 
on  the  south,  and  on  the  west.  For  our  text 
does  not  stand  alone ;  it  only  gathers  up  into  one 
expressive  symbol  a  multitude  of  great  and  pre- 
cious promises  and  invitations  from  God's  word. 
So  what  would  it  mean  for  this  Church  to  hold  its 
gates  open  on  every  side  ? 

"  On  the  east  three  gates."  It  is  not  pressing 
the  figure  too  far  to  say  that  every  true  church 
must  still  hold  its  doors  wide  open  toward  the 
regions  of  the  sun-rising,  where  the  children  live 
who  still  look  upon  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
with  the  same  large-eyed  wonder  as  of  old,  where 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  131 

the  dew  is  not  off  the  grass  and  the  freshness  of 
earth's  delights  has  not  yet  been  scorched  and 
withered  by  the  burning  heat  of  noontime ;  the 
region  of  primeval  mystery,  the  East,  old  as  Eden, 
but  still  to  be  found  in  every  home  which  has  a 
nursery  or  a  cradle.  Toward  this  great  sunrise 
continent,  with  its  boundless  populations, — more 
than  half  the  people  of  the  earth, — toward  all  these 
innumerable  little  children,  every  true  church 
of  Jesus  Christ  must  hold  its  doors  wide  open. 
Three  gates — the  perfect  number,  the  largest, 
freest  preparation  for  welcoming  them  all  in ;  the 
seal  of  baptism  placed  upon  their  foreheads ;  the 
tender  watchfulness  and  earnest  prayer  of  father 
and  mother  and  all  who  love  them  best  at  home ; 
the  careful  nurture  of  Sunday  school  and  mission 
band,  and  anything  and  everything  that  may  en- 
courage the  steps  of  these  little  children  into  the 
paths  of  Christian  service  and  train  their  lips  to 
Christian  confession  and  praise.  When  our  Saviour 
said,  "  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me, 
and  forbid  them  not "  ;  when  He  said,  "  Except  ye 
be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye 
cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,"  He  was 
announcing  with  all  possible  emphasis  that  every 
true  church  of  His  must  have  three  gates,  and 
three  gates  always  open  toward  the  sunrise. 


132  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

"  On  the  north  three  gates."  The  north,  where 
John  saw  the  formidable  young  nations ;  it  is 
the  region  of  boundless,  inexhaustible  energy.  It 
is  the  youth  of  Wordsworth's  poem,  who  "  daily 
further  from  the  east  must  travel,  but  still  is 
nature's  priest,  and  by  the  vision  splendid  is  on 
his  way  attended."  The  young  men  and  young 
women,  no  longer  little  children,  but  not  yet  arrived 
at  the  hot  noontide  of  middle  age,  possessing  not 
much  of  the  treasures  of  experience — there  is 
something  barbarous  in  their  unreasoning  hope 
and  exuberant  vitality — no  limit  to  their  strength, 
and  no  guessing  how  they  will  use  it.  It  might 
be  in  some  disastrous  Gothic  invasion,  like  those 
which  wrecked  the  ancient  Roman  world ;  it 
might  be  in  some  awful  French  Revolution,  like 
that  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  or  any  other  out- 
break of  delirious  enthusiasm  and  unbridled  pas- 
sion. For  the  north  is  a  stormy  region.  We 
are  afraid  of  these  young  men.  Old  Charlemagne 
wept  when  he  first  saw  the  sails  of  the  Northmen. 
Yet,  for  good  or  for  ill,  the  future  of  the  world  is 
with  them.  The  strength  is  theirs ;  the  hope  is 
theirs ;  the  possibilities  of  romantic  heroism  are 
theirs.  All  the  elements  of  life  are  still  unex- 
hausted with  them.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
unshrinkingly  holds  her  doors  wide  open  toward 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  133 

all  these  terrible  young  men  and  young  women. 
The  very  first  disciples  were  a  company  of  young 
men.  The  greeting  of  an  apostle  was,  "  I  have 
written  unto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  are 
strong."     "  On  the  north  three  gates." 

It  does  not  say  that  these  young  people  must 
first  circumambulate  the  city  and  beg  an  entrance 
at  the  eastern  gates,  or  at  the  western  gates,  where 
they  do  not  belong.  It  does  not  say  that  these 
young  men  must  try  to  pass  themselves  off  deceit- 
fully for  ignorant  babies,  or  for  exhausted  patri- 
archs ;  but  as  young  men  they  are  welcome  in 
the  Church  of  God.  The  directest  way  stands 
open  for  them  from  what  they  now  are,  out  in  the 
world,  under  the  dangerous  leadership  of  passion 
and  pride,  to  what  Christ  would  have  them  to  be 
when  they  have  accepted  His  gracious  mastery. 
"  On  the  north  three  gates." 

"  On  the  south  three  gates."  The  south.  When 
you  turn  your  face  that  way,  you  are  looking 
toward  those  regions  of  the  earth  where  the 
creation  of  man  might  be  charged  with  failure ; 
where  the  inferior  races  live — soft,  nerveless,  igno- 
rant, idle,  vicious,  without  ambition ;  not  truly 
childlike,  but  childish ;  humanity  in  its  most  hope- 
less degradation.  Men  will  tell  us  of  the  "  white 
man's  burden,"  and  argue,  with  some  reason,  that 


134  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

unless  the  stronger  races  of  the  north  are  willing 
to  assume  some  responsibility  for  these  degenerate 
children  of  the  south,  and  to  help  carry  their  bur- 
den for  them,  there  can  be  no  hope  of  better  things 
for  them.  But  you  do  not  need  to  travel  to  Africa, 
or  the  islands  of  the  Southern  Seas  for  these  speci- 
mens of  human  failure ;  they  are  about  us  every- 
where— the  criminal  classes,  the  vicious  classes ; 
many  of  them  born  so,  our  statisticians  tell  us ; 
men  and  women  congenitally  predestined  to  vice 
and  crime. 

Now,  how  will  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  bear 
herself  toward  this  sad  problem  ?  "  On  the  south 
three  gates."  There  is  the  answer;  that  is  the 
pattern  showed  us  on  the  Mount.  If  we  would 
be  true  to  the  heavenly  pattern,  we  must  beware 
how  we  ever  fail  to  hold  those  three  southern 
gates  of  the  city  wide  open — three  of  them ;  as 
many  for  the  south  as  for  the  east,  or  for  the 
north ;  as  wide  an  entrance  and  as  friendly  a  wel- 
come for  some  discouraged  drunkard  or  outcast 
as  for  the  purest  little  child  or  the  most  hopefully 
ambitious  young  man.  No  one  would  claim  that 
we  have  ever  succeeded  in  copying  that  pattern 
very  perfectly ;  it  is  hard  to  copy.  But  that  is  the 
pattern  set  us  by  our  Lord's  precepts,  and  abun- 
dantly reenforced  by  His  own  example ;   He  was 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  135 

so  tenderly  compassionate  toward  sinful  men  and 
women  and  so  strangely  hopeful  for  them.  The 
publicans  and  sinners,  if  they  were  willing  to 
enter,  could  be  so  sure  of  a  welcome  when  Christ 
Himself  stood  at  the  door.  "  On  the  south  three 
gates." 

But  how  about  the  west,  whither  the  Star  of 
Empire  turned  when  those  strong  young  German 
races  grew  older  and  more  knowing?  In  some 
ways  the  world  makes  its  best  showing  out  here 
in  the  west ;  this  is  the  ripe  maturity  of  the  world's 
day.  But  that  means  that  the  shadows  are  length- 
ening ;  the  sunset  will  come  after  a  while,  and  the 
day  will  be  ended.  It  is  a  serious  thought  that 
civilization  reaches  a  kind  of  period  in  this  western 
continent.  If  we  fail  here,  the  earth  affords  no 
room  for  further  experiments.  It  is  a  serious 
matter  for  any  man  when  his  own  day  passes  the 
meridian.  He  has  reached  middle  age,  and  hence- 
forth begins  to  grow  old.  The  shadows  are 
lengthening,  and  will  lengthen  faster  and  faster 
until  sunset  comes,  and  "  evening  star,  and  after 
that  the  dark."  Of  course,  age  has  some  advan- 
tages of  its  own.  The  old  man  knows  more  than 
the  boy,  and  he  generally  owns  more ;  he  has 
shaken  off  some  illusions,  outgrown  some  of  his 
earlier  follies,  moved  beyond  the  reach  of  certain 


136  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

kinds  of  temptation,  grown  dexterous  in  certain 
convenient  habits  of  work  and  decent  behavior. 
Age  is  a  good  time  for  carrying  his  enterprises 
forward  toward  completion,  for  writing  the  last 
chapters  of  his  book,  rounding  out  his  fortune,  per- 
fecting his  invention.  But  every  one  knows  what 
a  bad  time  old  age  is  for  making  beginnings.  Can 
an  old  beggar  acquire  the  habits  of  steady  indus- 
try? Can  an  old  thief  attain  the  reputation  or 
maintain  the  virtue  of  honesty  ?  Can  an  old  dunce 
ever  grow  wise  ?  Or,  even  when  these  older  men 
have  fallen  victims  to  misfortune  without  fault  of 
their  own — is  there  anywhere  a  more  pathetic  sight 
than  an  old  merchant  looking  hopelessly  for  a 
place  in  a  store,  or  an  old  preacher  looking  for  a 
charge  ?  The  world's  cities  seem  to  have  no  en- 
trance gates  in  their  western  wall. 

Now  what  attitude  shall  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  take  toward  the  old  men  and  the  old 
women  who  are  still  without  the  wall — those  who 
have  passed  all  the  days  of  their  lives  without 
ever  beginning  to  believe  and  confess  ?  "  On  the 
west  three  gates."  That  is  the  answer.  Just  as 
cordial  a  welcome,  just  as  free  an  entrance  for  the 
most  discouraged  old  man,  if  only  he  will  come, 
as  for  the  hopeful  youth  or  the  happy  little  child. 
For  you  remember  our  Lord's  parable,  "  It  was 


"THE  GATES  OF  THE  CITY"  137 

about  the  eleventh  hour  that  the  householder 
went  out  and  found  others  idle,  and  saith  unto 
them,  Why  stand  ye  here  all  the  day  idle  ?  And 
when  they  answered  that  no  man  had  hired  them, 
he  saith  unto  them,  Go  ye  also  into  the  vineyard, 
and  whatsoever  is  right  that  shall  ye  receive." 

**  Oh,  there  is  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy  like 
the  wideness  of  the  sea."  Who  can  measure 
it  ?  Who  can  measure  the  all-embracing  com- 
passion of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Who  can  set  limits  to 
the  versatile  hospitality  of  the  city  of  God  ?  Since 
these  gates  of  the  city  do  stand  so  wide  open  for 
all  sorts  and  conditions  and  races  and  ages  of 
men,  why  should  any  of  us  refuse  longer  to  enter 
in  ?  *'  The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say.  Come.  And 
let  him  that  heareth  say,  Come.  And  let  him 
that  is  athirst  come ;  and  whosoever  will  let  him 
take  the  water  of  life  freely."  "  On  the  east  three 
gates ;  on  the  north  three  gates ;  on  the  south 
three  gates ;  and  on  the  west  three  gates." 


VIII 
THE   HOME   OF  THE  SOUL 


VIII 

THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL 

"  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  dwelling-place  in  all  generations." 
— Psalm  xc.  i. 

A  DWELLING  PLACE,  and  that  means  home;  and 
there  is  hardly  a  word  in  our  language,  or  in  any 
language,  that  means  more  than  home.  It  means 
the  safest  place  for  us,  the  best  known  place,  the 
place  that  always  stays  the  same,  the  place  where 
our  dearest  ones  live  with  us,  where  our  life 
began  and  where  we  instinctively  hope  that  it 
may  end.  Sometimes  we  chose  to  leave  it  for 
a  while.  We  used  to  run  out  of  doors  gladly 
when  the  sun  was  shining  and  we  felt  strong  and 
well.  In  our  more  venturesome  moods  we  would 
attempt  larger  excursions  over  the  hills.  But  all 
the  time  we  must  be  sure  that  we  could  be  safe 
home  again  at  night  fall  when  we  were  tired.  It 
grows  cold  outside  and  the  right  place  to  be  is 
before  the  blazing  fire  at  home.  There  come 
fierce  storms  of  rain  or  snow  outside  and  the 
place  to  be  is  safe  indoors  at  home.  If  ever  we 
were  sick,  in  pain,  hurt  by  some  one's  unkindness, 

141 


142  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

lonely  because  of  the  great  world's  neglect, — oh, 
then  we  thanked  God  if  anywhere  in  all  the  world 
there  was  for  us  some  place  of  refuge  that  we 
could  call  home.  I  am  speaking  of  what  life 
meant  to  us  when  we  were  little  children,  years 
and  years  ago. 

When  we  grew  older  life  became  more  com- 
plicated and  artificial,  and  our  own  feelings  were 
somewhat  benumbed  by  the  multitude  of  new 
thoughts  and  ambitions,  and  then  many  of  us  were 
willing  to  wander  farther  from  the  old  dwelling 
place.  Our  journeys  were  longer  and  more  fre- 
quent, and  at  times  we  seemed  not  to  have  much 
thought  of  ever  coming  back ;  we  seemed  birds 
of  passage  without  need  of  any  home  at  all. 

But  the  old  nature  was  in  us  still,  and  a  very 
little  thing  would  be  enough  to  wake  it  up — a  dis- 
appointment, a  failure,  a  single  touch  of  sickness, 
some  strain  of  an  old  song,  some  old  picture 
discovered  in  the  bottom  of  the  drawer — and  sud- 
denly the  grown  man  finds  himself  as  homesick 
as  a  five-year-older  could  be.  Only  the  malady, 
when  it  strikes  him  now,  is  more  desperate  than 
in  the  earlier  days ;  for  now  where  is  his  home  ? 
He  has  lived  at  one  time  or  another  in  a  score  of 
houses  ;  many  old  friends  have  passed  out  of  his 
life ;  his  parents,  one  or  both  of  them  dead  per- 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  143 

haps ;  his  brothers  and  sisters  scattered — perhaps 
it  had  been  easier  if  some  of  them  were  dead; 
other  new  friends  have  come  into  his  life,  and 
some  of  them  Hve  here,  some  there ;  so  that  many 
houses  have  grown  a  Httle  homeUke  to  him.  But 
what  one  place  is  there  in  all  the  world  that 
can  mean  for  him  now  so  much  of  home  as  his 
father's  house  used  to  mean  when  he  was  a  boy  ? 

Still  the  word  "  home  "  does  mean  much  even 
to  the  oldest  of  us.  A  homeless  man  or  woman, 
a  man  without  a  country,  always  seems  to  us  one 
of  the  most  pitiable  of  creatures.  This  lot  seems 
to  us  the  opposite  of  all  that  human  life  ought 
to  be.  He  is  always  exposed  to  danger,  lone- 
liness, bewildering  change,  strangeness. 

This  Ninetieth  Psalm,  according  to  its  title,  is 
the  prayer  of  Moses,  the  man  of  God.  Certainly 
the  Psalm  would  be  worthy  of  such  a  writer  and 
well  suited  to  such  an  occasion.  That  wilderness 
episode  in  Israel's  life  meant  that  they  had  no 
home.  They  were  always  moving,  moving — all 
the  year,  and  then  another  year,  for  forty  years. 
Never  settling  down  at  home,  always  moving — you 
might  well  call  such  an  experience  a  wilderness. 
Old  Egypt,  the  land  of  bondage,  had  been  bad 
enough  ;  but,  at  least,  there  were  homes  in  Egypt ; 
and  no  wonder  if  at  times  the  people  longed  to 


144  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

turn  back  into  Egypt.  Homes  had  been  prom- 
ised in  Canaan,  but  that  promise  was  for  the 
benefit  of  their  children.  These  adult  Israelites 
through  one  long  forlorn  generation  must  be 
always  moving.  And  the  long-continued  home- 
lessness  taught  them  something.  For  all  time  to 
come  the  memory  of  that  homeless  wilderness 
would  make  them  value  the  homes  that  God 
should  give  them  in  Canaan. 

So  for  us,  every  journey  that  we  ever  have  to 
take  abroad,  every  enforced  or  voluntary  change 
of  place,  may  still  teach  us  some  of  the  same 
lessons  that  the  Israelites  learned  from  their  wan- 
derings in  the  wilderness. 

But  the  passage  of  time  also  teaches  some  of 
these  lessons.  Go  back  in  after  years  to  the  old 
house  that  you  once  called  home,  after  that  house 
has  passed  into  the  hands  of  strangers,  and  see 
how  much  it  means  to  you  now  of  what  it  used 
to  mean  then.  There  may  be  one  particular 
house  still  standing  in  some  distant  city  which 
once  for  a  little  while  meant  more  than  all  the 
rest  of  the  world  to  some  one  of  you.  It  was  the 
earliest  home  that  you  can  remember ;  but  years 
ago — twenty,  thirty,  perhaps  forty  years  ago — 
you  and  yours  moved  out  of  it.  Who  may  have 
lived   in  it   since  you    do   not   know.     The   old 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  145 

house  may  stand  there  entirely  unchanged  to  out- 
ward appearance.  There  is  the  doorstep  on 
which  you  used  to  play,  the  iron  balcony  before 
the  parlor  window,  the  dark  passage  leading 
through  to  the  area,  the  nursery  windows  above — 
can  you  not  see  it  all  ?  I  can ;  not  one  brick  or 
windowpane  changed ;  and  your  heart  is  always 
tenderly  moved  toward  what  used  to  be  your  home. 
But  you  have  never  once  set  foot  inside  of  it  for 
forty  years,  and  now  probably  never  will.  It  is 
no  home  now ;  there  is  no  shelter  there  for  you, 
no  dear  companionship.  You  can  travel  back,  if 
you  choose,  to  the  old  house.  The  barriers  of 
space  now  separating  you  from  that  home  of  your 
childhood  could  be  passed  over  any  day  in  a  few 
hours,  but  the  barriers  of  time  separating  you 
from  it  are  insuperable.  Go  to-morrow  and  walk 
up  the  old  street,  mount  the  old  steps,  enter  the 
old  door — you  have  not  reached  the  old  home, 
for  that  is  still  forty  years  away. 

A  graduate  of  some  years'  standing  goes  back 
to  his  college,  or  tries  to ;  but  has  he  really  come 
back  ?  Is  this  the  old  college  ?  The  city  bears 
the  same  name  on  the  map,  and  the  streets  about 
the  campus  bear  the  same  names  as  when  he  used 
to  walk  them.  Some  few  of  the  buildings  fit  into 
places  in  his  mental  picture.     But  where  are  the 

c    10 


146  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

men,  his  dear  associates  in  work  and  play  ?  He 
counts  himself  happy  now  if  he  can  find  one  or 
two  of  their  children  in  the  old  halls. 

Ah,  friends,  this  journey  of  time  that  we  are 
always  making  is  the  irrevocable  journey.  We 
might  travel  back  over  a  thousand  leagues  of 
space;  we  cannot  travel  back  over  one  moment 
of  time.  This  is  the  stern  compulsion  which  has 
always  been  unsettHng  us,  ostracizing  us,  making 
homeless  exiles  of  us.  We  step  into  each  new 
day  of  our  lives  as  a  company  of  immigrants. 
The  old  country — that  dear  yesterday  where  we 
thoueht  we  had  a  home — has  been  left  forever 
behind.  We  never  shall  see  its  shores  again. 
We  have  crossed  the  broad  ocean  of  the  night ; 
and  here  we  are,  disembarking  in  a  strange  land, 
to  make  a  new  home  in  it,  if  we  can. 

This  is  the  pathos  of  human  life.  This  is  what 
has  always  made  those  wilderness  wanderings  of 
ancient  Israel  seem  like  a  type  of  man's  story  on 
earth ;  it  is  this  ceaseless  journey  of  time.  Even 
though  a  man  should  spend  the  whole  period  of 
threescore  years  and  ten  without  ever  moving  a 
hundred  miles  from  the  spot  where  he  was  born, 
he  moves  as  swiftly  as  the  rest  down  this  river  of 
time,  and,  therefore,  can  find  no  continuing  city, 
no  spot  which  he  can  go  on  calling  home.     Even 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  147 

after  the  Israelites  had  crossed  over  into  Canaan, 
and  found  cities  for  habitation,  they  would  still  be 
moved  to  sing  or  wail  this  Ninetieth  Psalm :  "  We 
spend  our  years  as  a  tale  that  is  told."  "  Thou 
earnest  them  away  as  with  a  flood ;  they  are  as  a 
sleep :  in  the  morning  they  are  hke  grass  which 
groweth  up.  In  the  morning  it  flourisheth,  and 
groweth  up;  in  the  evening  it  is  cut  down,  and 
withereth." 

How  pathetic  it  is  to  watch  the  efforts  of  men 
when  they  have  tried  to  turn  back  or  check  the 
current  of  this  river  of  time !  We  appoint  our 
commemorative  anniversaries,  links  holding  us  to 
the  past.  We  band  ourselves  together  in  ancestral 
societies.  We  build  monuments  to  the  heroes 
that  have  been.  We  make  pilgrimages  to  old 
houses  and  old  shrines.  We  try  in  all  ways  and 
by  all  means  to  attach  ourselves  to  something 
fixed,  something  that  even  time  cannot  change. 
If  we  can  find  anywhere  some  structure  Hke  those 
great  pyramids  of  Egypt  which  have  really  stood 
unmoved  and  immovable  from  before  the  time 
when  Moses  sang  this  psalm,  we  begin  to  exult 
in  the  discovery,  as  if  now  with  our  own  hand  we 
had  been  able  to  lay  hold  upon  the  satisfying 
homelike  changelessness  of  eternity.  But  in  a 
moment  we  draw  back  shuddering ;  for  the  great 


148  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

monument,  when  we  touch  it,  proves  to  be  nothing 
but  a  grave ;  the  chill  of  death  is  there ;  nothing 
like  a  home  for  any  living  man.  The  vast  pyramid 
itself  is  not  big  enough  to  dam  up  any  part  of  the 
channel  of  time's  river,  or  to  make  that  current 
run  more  slowly  for  one  living  human  being. 

So  Ave  feel  ourselves  exiles  still,  wanderers, 
awaking  every  morning  on  the  further  unfamiliar 
shore  of  a  boundless  sea.  A  home  is  what  we 
want ;  who  will  give  us  a  home  that  we  can  keep  ? 

The  psalmist  connects  this  homelessness  of 
man  with  his  sin.  "  Thou  hast  set  our  iniquities 
before  Thee,  our  secret  sins  in  the  light  of  Thy 
countenance  "  ;  therefore  "  we  spend  our  years  as 
a  tale  that  is  told."  Of  course  the  old  history  of 
Exodus  declares  that  this  was  the  reason  why  the 
people  and  Moses  himself  were  compelled  to  wear 
out  their  lives  in  the  wilderness ;  it  was  because 
of  sinful  unbelief  Always  it  is  a  deplorable  con- 
sequence of  sin  that  it  estranges  men,  isolates 
them  from  God  and  also  from  each  other.  The 
prodigal's  selfishness  soon  drives  him  along  that 
journey  into  the  far  country ;  and  the  most  deso- 
late picture  of  the  final  ruin  of  sin  is  in  those 
words  which  our  Saviour  used  to  speak  so  sor- 
rowfully, "  the  outer  darkness."  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob,  and  all  the  prophets  would  be  gath- 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  149 

ered  in  the  home ;  and  many  more  coming  to  sit 
down  with  tliem  from  east  and  w^est  and  north 
and  south ;  all  sitting  down  at  the  family  feast ; 
but  there  would  be  some  left  outside  homeless,  in 
the  outer  darkness.  It  was  their  sin  that  had  shut 
them  out,  their  selfishness  and  pride  and  angry 
rejection  of  God's  goodness.  That  is  what  sin  is 
always  doing,  in  this  world  as  well  as  in  the  world 
to  come :  it  shuts  men  out.  Selfishness,  pride, 
malice,  uncharitableness,  distrust, — they  shut  a 
man  out  from  home,  from  any  home,  from  every 
home.  Suppose  you  see  one  of  these  poor  home- 
less wretches  and  offer  him  your  hospitality. 
You  may  even  try  to  force  it  upon  him ;  you  open 
the  door  of  your  house  and  call  and  beckon  to 
him  as  he  stands  shivering  out  in  the  cold  and 
storm  and  dark.  You  may  even  catch  hold  of  his 
body,  and  drag  his  body  in  through  the  door,  and 
sit  his  body  in  the  easiest  chair  before  the  blazing 
fire,  or  push  his  body  up  to  the  table,  bidding  him 
eat.  But  so  long  as  that  strange,  cold,  distant 
spirit  dwells  in  him,  whatever  you  do  with  his 
body,  he,  the  man,  is  still  outside  in  the  cold  and 
storm  and  dark,  and  your  friendliest  hospitality 
cannot  reach  him. 

This  Book  tells  how  the  kind  Father  of  all  sent 
His  own  Son  to  those  who  were  shivering  in  the 


I50  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

outer  darkness  of  sin,  that  He  might  invite  and 
draw  them  into  the  house ;  but  if  they  would  not 
be  persuaded,  even  the  Son  of  God  could  not 
bring  them  in.  Such  a  man  carries  the  gloom  of 
the  outer  darkness  as  a  prison  wall  about  him 
wherever  he  goes.  *'  Which  way  shall  I  fly  ?  " 
Milton's  Satan  cries ;  "  Which  way  I  fly  is  hell, 
myself  am  hell."  And  what  the  poet  called  Satan 
was  only  a  putting  together  of  various  things  that 
he  had  discerned  in  the  sinful  heart  of  man. 

Henry  Drummond  says  that  "  no  worse  fate 
can  befall  a  man  in  this  world  than  to  live  and 
grow  old  alone,  unloving  and  unloved.  To  be 
lost  is  to  live  loveless  and  unloved."  It  is  the 
outer  darkness,  that  curse  of  eternal  homelessness. 

Hawthorne,  in  one  of  his  stories,  tells  of  a 
young  girl,  an  artist  at  Rome,  who  felt  such  a 
curse  falling  upon  her,  not  for  sin  of  her  own,  but 
because  she  had  witnessed  another's  crime.  "  This 
awful  loneliness  enveloped  her  whithersoever  she 
went.  It  was  a  shadow  in  the  sunshine  of  festal 
days ;  a  mist  between  her  eyes  and  the  picture  at 
which  she  strove  to  look ;  a  chill  dungeon,  which 
kept  her  in  its  gray  twilight  and  fed  her  with  its 
unwholesome  air."  Afterwards,  when  she  found 
words  to  tell  another  her  trouble,  she  said :  "  I 
am  a  motherless  girl,  and  a  stranger  here  in  Italy. 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  151 

I  had  only  God  to  take  care  of  me  and  be  my 
closest  friend ;  and  the  terrible  crime  thrust  itself 
between  Him  and  me ;  so  that  I  groped  for  Him 
in  the  darkness,  as  it  were,  and  found  Him  not ; 
found  nothing  but  a  dreadful  solitude,  and  this 
crime  in  the  midst  of  it."  For  a  little  while,  suffer- 
ing for  another's  sin,  the  poor  girl  felt  the  horror 
of  the  outer  darkness  falling  about  her. 

Now  this  is  the  explanation  that  the  psalmist 
gives  of  the  sad  homelessness  of  human  life — all 
these  weary,  aimless  wanderings  through  a  thirsty 
wilderness — it  is  because  of  sin. 

There  was  a  home  all  the  while;  there  is  a 
home  always  ready  for  all ;  its  doors  always  open, 
its  table  always  spread ;  the  very  servants  in  that 
home  have  bread  enough  and  to  spare ;  but  we 
in  our  lonely  exile  were  perishing  with  hunger 
because  of  our  sin. 

What,  then,  was  the  home  that  we  might  have 
enjoyed  except  for  our  sin  ?  Our  text  gives  the 
answer.  "  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  dwelling- 
place."  "  Before  the  mountains  were  brought 
forth,  or  ever  Thou  hast  formed  the  earth  and 
the  world,  even  from  everlasting  to  everlasting, 
Thou  art  God."  Thou,  God,  art  our  dwelling- 
place,  our  home. 

What  a  beautiful  thought  that  was  to  come  into 


152  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

the  mind  of  one  of  those  exiles  in  the  wilderness ! 
What  comfort  it  brought  him !  No  matter  now, 
though  he  was  condemned  to  spend  the  days  of 
his  earthly  life  wandering  in  that  solitary  way, 
finding  no  city  to  dwell  in,  hungry  and  thirsty,  hib 
soul  fainting  in  him ;  no  better  shelter  than  the 
black  tents  of  the  Bedouin ;  always  on  the  go  ; 
breaking  camp  every  morning,  and  moving  on  as 
if  with  the  fate  of  the  wandering  Jew  himself; 
never  entering  Canaan,  only  looking  over  into  that 
country  of  homes.  It  was  no  great  matter ;  for 
when  once  Moses  had  learned  this  blessed  secret 
of  faith,  he  was  no  more  an  exile.  The  dry  wil- 
derness itself  had  grown  dear  and  homelike  to 
him,  for  His  God  was  there ;  and  God  was  his 
dwelling-place ;  he  lived  and  moved  and  had  his 
being  in  God ;  and  he  knew  it  at  last,  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  it  was  blessed. 

All  the  best  things  that  other  men  look  for  in 
the  earthly  home  this  man  could  find  in  God. 
We  love  our  home  because  it  is  the  safest  place ; 
but  surely  that  man  who  had  discovered  that  he 
was  living  in  God  was  safe,  knew  that  he  was 
safe ;  he  had  almost  a  direct  consciousness  of 
safety,  and  could  "  endure  as  seeing  the  invisible." 
We  love  our  home  because  it  is  the  best  known 
place  to  us,  the  place  that  has  grown  dear  and 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  153 

familiar,  that  does  not  change ;  where  those  whom 
we  love  best  live  with  us  ;  where  our  life  began 
and  we  should  hope  that  it  might  end.  But 
surely  God  had  become  all  that  to  this  man ;  in 
all  these  ways  God  was  his  home.  No  change 
of  place  could  take  him  away  from  God.  If  he 
ascended  into  heaven,  he  would  find  God  there. 
If  it  were  possible  that  some  fierce  enemy  seize 
him  and  drag  him  down  to  hell,  his  dear  home 
would  be  waiting  to  shelter  him  there.  If  he  took 
the  wings  of  the  morning  and  dwelt  in  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  sea,  his  home  is  there.  No 
change  of  place  could  pull  him  away  from  home. 
Neither  could  any  change  of  time.  From  ever- 
lasting to  everlasting  his  home  stands  firm.  "A 
thousand  years  in  Thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday 
when  it  is  past,  and  as  a  watch  in  the  night." 
Before  the  first  stone  of  the  pyramids  was  laid ; 
before  the  mountains  were  brought  forth ;  and 
after  they  all  have  gone,  and  the  earth  and  the 
heavens,  "  Thou  art  from  everlasting  to  everlast- 
ing "  our  home.  He  was  the  God  of  the  fathers, 
of  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob.  He  shall  be 
the  God  of  the  children.  The  generations  are  all 
bound  safely  together  in  Him.  Even  time,  which 
destroys  all  things  else,  has  no  power  to  harm 
the  man  who  has  found  his  home  in  God. 


154  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

Oh,  what  a  comforting  faith  that  would  be  ! 
What  a  sublime  prayer  it  is  that  comes  down  to 
us  from  the  solitudes  of  that  Arab  desert !  If  we 
could  only  hope  to  have  a  faith  like  it  in  these 
modern  times,  and  in  this  western  world. 

Ah,  but  we  can  !  We  who  have  once  heard  the 
voice  of  Jesus  ought  to  know  better  than  Moses 
himself  how  much  the  words  meant  when  he 
called  the  Lord  his  dwelling  place,  his  home. 
For  Jesus  made  it  his  life-work  to  seek  out  those 
who  were  lonely  and  bring  them  to  their  home  in 
God.  And  Jesus  knew  how.  He  had  a  large 
experience  in  homelessness.  It  began  as  soon  as 
He  was  born.  Mary  was  far  away  from  the  famil- 
iar Nazareth  home  when  Jesus  was  born.  There 
was  no  room  for  them  even  in  the  inn  ;  the  Holy 
Family  were  a  kind  of  shelterless  outcasts  in 
Bethlehem.  When  He  began  his  ministry  no 
earthly  home  went  with  the  office ;  "  the  foxes 
have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests ; 
but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his 
head."  Even  when  He  died,  it  was  in  another's 
grave,  a  borrowed  grave,  that  they  laid  His  body 
away.  Homeless  Himself,  by  his  own  experience 
He  was  able  to  feel  for  all  who  are  homeless  and 
lonely.  He  has  felt  for  them  ;  He  has  been  show- 
ing his  sympathy  ever  since,  and  teaching  them 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  155 

to  find  their  home  in  God,  to  rest  in  a  sense  of  a 
Father's  care. 

Moreover,  Jesus  has  bound  many  of  these  poor 
souls  together  in  the  new  human  fellowship  of  His 
Church,  by  the  love  that  they  all  feel  for  Him  ;  He 
has  breathed  His  own  Spirit  into  their  hearts, 
saying,  "  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world  "  ;  so  that  He  shall  Hve  in  them,  and 
they  in  Him,  forever. 

How  beautiful  it  is  to  read  the  testimonies  of 
those  who  have  received  from  Jesus  Christ  this 
gift  of  a  home  with  Him,  a  home  in  God.  Peter 
writes  to  his  friends  about  Jesus  Christ,  "  Whom 
having  not  seen,  ye  love ;  in  whom,  though  now  ye 
see  Him  not,  yet  believing,  ye  rejoice  with  joy 
unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  John  says,  "  If 
we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us,  and  His 
love  is  perfected  in  us.  Hereby  know  we  that  we 
dwell  in  Him,  and  He  in  us,  because  He  hath  given 
us  of  His  Spirit."  It  was  John  too  who  could  see 
that  vision,  partly  of  heaven  and  partly  of  earth, 
when  "  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  He 
will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  His  people, 
and  God  himself  shall  be  with  them,  and  be  their 
God."  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we  read 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  and  to- 
day, and  forever,  and  also  the  promise  :  "  He  hath 


156  FOR  WHOM  CHRIST  DIED 

said,  I  will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee.  So 
that  we  may  boldly  say,  The  Lord  is  my  helper,  and 
I  will  not  fear  what  man  shall  do  unto  me."  And 
Paul, — Paul  who  felt  himself  the  chief  of  sinners, 
who  had  been  forgiven  much  and  therefore  loved 
much, — is  very  bold,  and  dared  to  say :  "  I 
live;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  He  said, 
"  I  am  persuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  nor 
angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth, 
nor  any  other  creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord."  Ah,  that  man  had  found  a  home  which 
would  go  with  him  always  and  everywhere !  No 
change  of  place,  nor  of  time  could  part  him  from  it. 
Nothing  could  rob  him  of  its  safe  shelter  and  com- 
forting endearments.  For  life  or  death,  for  time  or 
for  eternity,  his  Saviour  had  given  him  a  home  in 
God. 

How  much  farther  these  Christians  had  gone  in 
their  knowledge  of  this  subject  than  Moses  with 
his  psalm  could  go !  A  single  gleam  of  inspiration 
flashed  upon  him ;  one  vision  from  the  mountain 
top ;  by  one  tremendous  effort  of  faith  he  cried, 
"  Lord,  thou  hast  been  our  dwelling-place  "  ;  but 
that  is  all.  As  if  exhausted  by  the  effort  he  sinks 
back,  and  the   rest  of  the  psalm  goes   on   in   a 


THE  HOME  OF  THE  SOUL  157 

minor  key  to  set  forth  all  the  melancholy  cir- 
cumstances of  our  human  need.  On  the  moun- 
tain he  saw  God ;  then  the  vision  passes,  and 
he  is  on  the  plain  again. 

But  these  disciples  of  Jesus  can  go  on  talking 
of  their  dear  refuge  in  God  all  the  day  long, 
through  the  whole  chapter — almost  as  one  would 
speak  of  a  common  earthly  home.  He  is  with 
them  in  the  plain ;  and  by  a  thousand  homely 
figures  and  instances  they  tell  us  how  their  Lord 
has  been  ever  with  them,  to  keep  them  safe  and 
to  make  them  glad. 

So  that  is  the  refuge  we  all  may  have,  and  we 
all  need  it  sorely.  We  are  like  a  company  of 
travelers,  wandering  on  homeless,  whither  we  do 
not  know.  This  day  slips  by  quickly  while  we 
talk  about  it ;  and  then  comes  the  dark,  and  then 
perhaps  another  day ;  but  we  enter  it  as  strangers 
in  a  strange  land.  Yet  it  is  our  privilege,  if  we 
will  trust  the  promise  of  Jesus,  to  move  on  into 
this  strange  new  country  as  cheerful  and  fearless 
as  some  little  child  at  home,  who  sees  above  him 
the  roof  and  all  about  him  the  safe  walls  of  his 
father's  house.  Lord,  from  everlasting  to  ever- 
lasting Thou  art  God,  and  Thou  art  our  dwelling 
place,  our  home 


NEW  YORK  CITY— In  the  Brlcli 
I*resbyterian  Churcli,  Sunday  morn- 
ing, tiie  pastor,  the  Rev,  William  R 
Richards,  preached  to  a  large  congre 
gation  on  "Following  Jesus."  He  tool< 
jfor  his  text  Matthew  ix:19,  "And 
ffesus  arose  and  followed  him  an<! 
so   dill   his  disciples,"  and   said: 

The  question  comes  to  us,  What  il 
meant  to  be  a  Christian  at  the  time 
when  Jesus  was  living  on  the  earth* 
Of  course,  ftie   word  "Christian"  had 
not  then  come  into  use,  hut  the  fad 
Is  the  Christian  life  existed,  and  oui 
question   is,  "What  was  it  lilie,   how 
it    began,    how    it    showed    itself,    bj 
what  upward  step  would  a  man  prove 
that   he   had   made   the   great   choice 
and  had  become  what  we  would  now 
call  a  Christian?    If  we  want  to  kno^ 
we   have   to  look   into  the   gospel   o! 
history,    and,    looking   there,    we   fine 
a  plain   and  emphatic  answer  in  on€ 
word,    the    word    "follow."      For    the 
common  way  of  announcing  that  auj 
man  had   made  the  great   choice  foi 
Jesus   was   to   say,   "He  rose   and  foL 
lowed    Him."      There    are    sixty-nin< 
places  where  we  read  of  one  and  an 
ojther  and   of  many  at  once  who  fol- 
lowed Jesus.     That  is  the  historic  pie 
ture    of    the    Christian    life    in    those 
days.     It  is  the  leader   walking  here 
and  there  about  the  country  and  his 
disciples  following  Him.    In  the  beau 
tiful    parable    Jesus    is    described    as 
the  shepherd  going  on  ahead  and  his 
sheep,  who  proved  they  were  his  sheep 
because  they  knew  His  voice,  follow 
ing  him.     That  is  the  regular  ordei 
of   the   sacred   history:      Jesus   going 
before  and  the  others   following.  Bui 
there  is  one   singular   marked   excep- 
tion to  that  order.    It  is  all  the  more 
striking  because  it  stands  alone,  JusI 
once    in    the    gospel    of    history    this 
term  is  used  in  the  other  order.  Some 
one  else  is  leading,  it  is  Jesus  that  is 
following.     Who  can  this  other  leader 
be  who  spoke  with  such  authority  that 
Jesus  followed  him?  You  might  thinly 
It  was  some  great  teacher   and  lead- 
er experienced  in  the  things  of  God, 
But   it   was   not    so,     because     after 
Jesus  had  once  claimed  the  position 
as  teacher  He  never  consented  to  fol- 
low   another    teacher.       Or      perhaps 
some  4P«preme    ecclesiastic,    who,    be-  j 
cause  of  his   sacred  offlce  could  take  | 
precedence  of  Jes\is.     But  it   was  not : 
«o.    for    if  vnu    look    \ntn    th«    history  I 


you   find   that   our   Ix)rd   nes  ' 

moment  rendered  sucli  supremacy  tS 
any  church  official.  His  word  was  ^% 
ways  "Follow  me."  Or  you  mighi 
think  it  was  some  civil  ruler,  like^ 
King  Herod  or  Pilate,  or  the  great^ 
Caesar  himself  at  Rome.  But  it  w^s-: 
not  so;  He  never  consented  to  follow; 
any  great  man  on  earth.  He  did  say, 
"Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that 
are  Caesar's,"  but  He  was  talking 
about  taxes,  not  His  personal  allegi- 
ance; that  was  not  one  of  the  things 
that  were  Caesar's,  It  was  not  at  the 
summons  of  any  person  that  Jesus 
rose  up  and  followed.  What  was  it, 
then? 

You  remember  the  story.    The  man 
was    named    Jairus.      He    was,    it    is 
true,   a   ruler    of  the   synagogue,   but 
thftt  meant  little  more  than  the  leader 
dt  a  prayer  meeting.     It  would  have 
been   just   the   same   had   he   been    a 
beggar.    He  was  a  beggar  on  this  oc- 
casion:     "While   Jesus    spake     these 
things,   behold,  there  came  a  certain  ' 
ruler,    saying,    My    daughter    is    even 
now  dead,  but  come,  and  lay  thy  hands 
upon    her   and    she    shall    live.      And 
Jesus  rose  up  arid  followed  him."  The 
secret  is  out.     There  was  a  man  who 
could  speak  for  a  moment  in  a  tone 
of  authority,   then,   to  Jesus,   because 
he    spake    through    more    immediate 
contact   with  the   world's   sorrow   and 
and   pain    and   need;    that    was   what 
gave   him   his   precedence.     Lead   on, 
man!    Jesus    follows.      How    strange! 
It  seemed  to  me  that  we  might  take 
this  as  one  of  the  passages  that  re- 
mind us  of  the  Lord's  humanity,  show- 
ing how  He  was  shut  out  by  limita- 
tion of  knowledge,  how  He  must  wait 
until  some  one  came  and  showed  Him  i 
the  home  where  the  shadow  of  deatli 
was.     I    suppose   it   is   true   in    some 
sense,  but  as  you  muse  upon,  you  feel  i 
it    was    also    an    illustration    of    His  | 
Godhood.     What  kind  of   message   is 
it  that   comes   with   authority   to  the 
ears  of  the  Creator?     Some  story  of 
His  creature's  need.     It  is  our  weak 
ness   that   moves   God,    our   humility, 
emptiness.    It  is  our  cry  of  emptiness 
our  cry  of  need,  that  moves  God.     It 
it  were  possible  to  conceive  of  such  5' 
thing  as  the  limitation  of  tX^e  knowl- 
edge of  God— if  you  could  conceive  of 
yourself   as    going   into    the    presence 
of  God  and  informing  Him  tha,t  some- 
where   in    some   forgotten    corner    of 
His  nnivorsft  there  was  some  unknowJi 


pceSLtwre,  unknown  to  Him,  that  wae 
jperishing  for  want  of  Him,  and  you 
were  the  only  guide  qualified  to  show 
the  way  to  that  creature,  we  may 
say,  with  all  reverence  that  you  could 
expect  God  Himself  to  rise  up  and 
follow  you.  And  Jesus  rose  up  and 
followed  Jairus  to  the  house  of  sor- 
row. My  friends,  let  us  comfort  our- 
selves with  the  assurance  that  any 
such  message  as  that  will  move  the 
Ijori  today  just  as  in  the  days  of 
Jairus.  Whatever  pain  or  sorrow 
there  is  in  your  own  house  or  the 
house  of  your  friend,  you  may  go  to 
Him  straightway  and  tell  Him,  and 
when  you  return  you  may  be  sure 
that  you  are  taking  His  presence  with 
you.  Be  sure  a  man  of  that  kmd  is 
a  privileged  character;  he  takes  pre- 
cedence of  all.  When  Jarius  has  fin- 
ished speaking,  Jesus  rises  up  and 
follows  him. 

Now  that  is  only  the  first  part  of 
our  Text.  This  is  the  second  part: 
"And   so   did   His   disciples."     As   dis- 

:iles  it  was  their  business  to  follow 
ucisus,  and  now  Jesus  was  following 
I  Jairus.  Is  not  this  a  most  excellent 
example  "for  any  loyal  church?  The 
!  question  that  ought  to  come  to  us  & 
the  question  of  leadership,  human 
leadership  of  a  Christian  church,  and, 
of  course,  I  shall  often  expect  to  And 
that  kind  of  leadership  in  the  cti:»^ 
itself.  Men  and  women  experieacad 
m  tne  llilngo  of  God  who  can  serve 
a^  leaders  for  their  younaer  l3rethren. 
It  was  so  in  the  days  of  the  apostles. 
Men  like  Paul  v,'ho  charged  the 
younger  members  that  the.y  sh-,nld 
follow  liim  as  he  was  following  Christ 
land  it  was  safe  counsel.  There  are 
leaders  in  the  church,  but  the  ques- 
tion which  our  text  suggests  is  wheth- 
er there  may  ever  be  any  kind  of 
safe  leadership  inside  the  church  from 
outside  the  church.  If  any  man  from 
outside  appears  and  says  "come," 
would  it  ever  be  safe  for  us  to  fol- 
low? Certainly  not  always.  If  Chris- 
tian people  afe  too  ready  to  walk  af- 
ter everybody  who  beckons  them 
they  are  likely  to  wander  away  from 
the  Master,  There  comes  some  new 
teacher  with  great  pretensions  of  vls- 
dom  who  says,  "Come,  I  will  lead  you 
Into  higher  regions  than  your  master 
has  been  able  to  show  you."  Any 
church  that  follows  such  may  make 
up  their  mind  that  thev  will  soon  lose 
the    Master.      Or,    again,    It    may    be 


some  high  ch-jrcii  official  who  says  he 
will  lead  you  to  regions  of  religions 
assurance  that  you  have  not  found  In 
following  your  Master.  In  the  old 
days  it  would  have  been  the  High 
Priest;  In  our  day  it  might  be  the 
ancient  and  splendid  hierarchy  of  the 
army  of  Rome,  but  you  and  I  are  per- 
suaded that  It  is  more  blessed  to  fol- 
IfiSrl^  Master  "who  not  havinsr  nr^n 
we  love."  Christ  has  never  consent- 
ed that  we  should  follow  ahy  human 
priest.  Then,  again,  the  churcli 
might  consent  to  follow  Caesar  or 
some  representative  of  nolitical  newer, 
in  the  world."  In  following  Caesar^ 
we  run  the  risk  of  losing  the  more 
important  guidance  of  Jesus.  No  po- 
litick power,  no  human  prestige,  no 
wisdom  of  the  human  understanding 
is  a  safe  guide  for  any  church  ot 
Christ. 

Then  can  you  conceive  dT  any  hu- 
man leadership  that  It  would  be  safe 
for  the  church  or  disciples  to  follow? 
Yes.  •  Here  is  this  man,   .Talriis.    who 
comes  from  outside  with  this  pitiful 
storv,    and    Jesus    rises    and      follows 
him."  and    so    do    His    disciples.      Any 
man  who  knowns  the  way  to  any  kind 
of  human   sorrow   or   need   or  wrong 
mav  claim  a  hearing  from  any  church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  If  in  the  hearing 
they   find    he   knows   the   way   better 
than   we.   he   may   claim   not   only   a 
hearing,   but   the   followlnsr   from    the 
church  of  Jesus  Christ.     It  is  direct 
Imitation  of  His  examnle.  The  church 
has  often  been   t-no   slov/!    eometimes 
because  we  did  not  like  tlie  man  who 
called.    The  personal  cha^act'^r  of  the 
leader   does   not   come  ir-to   the  ques- 
tion   at   all.     We    want   aH    those   in 
sorrow   to  know   that   the  best  nlace 
to  come  is  alwavs  the  c^nrch  of  Jesus 
Clirist.      That    the    mefs^ge    will    re- 
cieve  the  promntest  attention,  and  no 
poor  .TMrus  need  ever  fry  home  along. 
Once    his    story    was    finished.    Jes-.js 
got  un  and  folio wel  him.   and  so  dW 
His    disciples.      If    vv>»    are    di^cioles. 
it   is   our  business     tn  he     following 
Christ.     But  how  to  follow  Him?  Who 
will   lead   us?     I  haTo  no   doubt  that 
sometimes  our  Lord  si^ows  us  the-way 
bv  those  older  and  wiser  in  thp  church 
and  sometimes  He  eAereises  His  Lead- 
jership    through    those      without      the 
church,  messengers  telling  us  of  some 
one  who  needs  heli' .  and  our  business 
as    Christians,    not   *J?ilv   as    churches. 


-   indiVidua]  ; 

always   for  that   fffpeal.   lool<in2:   only  t 
to   the   T>ath   that  K^ads  to  the  house 
where  thev  need  lis.     We  cannct  see 
■IP  face  of  Jesus,  ?7e.  cannot  hear  His  j 
lice;   it  may  ev€ii  seem  to  some  of  ' 
us  that    we  have   ^ost  the   comfortina;   ; 
«ense    of    Jesus    fn    our    hearts,      We 
k  why  He  did  not  leave  some  guide 
horn    we    coulc?    fG'^    and    follow    and 
who  would  lead  lis  back  to  Him  and  i 
before  the  words  are  o-jt  nf  our  lins  j. 
here  stands  thlg  Jairus.     "Come  "  he  ? 
says,  and  you  llftteu  and  you  rise  up  i 
and  follow  him.  find  as  scon  as  you  do  ' 
something  tellfi  you  that  you   are  not 
j  any  longer  walking  alone.     That  lost 
'  companionship  jou  were  mourning  for 
has  been  restirtfed  to  you.     This  was 
His    guide,    and,    yon   have    done    well 
to  follow  hfni. 

This  is  not  ifiy  fancy.    T^et  me  read 

you   the   plain   words   of  the   history: 

"While  he  spake,  behold!   there  camv-? 

a    certain    rjt.^r,    and    when    he    saw 

I  Jesus  he  fell  «.t  his  feet  and  besought 

I  him,  saying,  'My  little  daughter  Heth 

!  at   the   point    of   death.      I    pray   thee 

!  come  and  lay  thy  hand  upon  her  and 

'  she    shall   live,    and    Jesus    arose   and 

■  followed     hl^n,   and   so     did   his     dls- 

ci])](^s." 


^y^  /*»» 

,^-^^ 

'^^^^' 


X 


